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DALLAS - For Wounded Warrior Matthew Staton, the Patriot Scuba
shop at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service's Town Center at Fort
Belvoir has helped give him a renewed sense of adventure.
In
January 2004, Staton was a second lieutenant in the Army stationed
in Iraq when he took six rounds to the chest and leg, leaving him
with no feeling in his left thigh, significant loss of use of his
left leg, post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain
injury.
Ten years later, following his latest hip surgery,
Staton was able to begin doing adaptive sports and completed his
first dive August of 2014 with Patriot Scuba. Being in the water is
a recommended part of Staton's therapy, taking the pressure off his
joint and reducing the pain his daily activities cause him.
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July 4, 2015 - Wounded Warrior Matthew Staton prepares for a dive with Patriot Scuba Owner Jeff Currer. Currer is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Patriots for Disabled Divers, which helps provide scuba diving lessons to wounded veterans at no cost to them. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Army & Air Force Exchange Service HQ)
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“[Diving is] a popular thing in the Warrior community all
around,” Staton said. “Because of the way being in water
feels, it gives you more of a sense of freedom than being
out of water – and that doesn't preclude people with
conditions like PTSD.”
Patriot Scuba opened at the
Exchange's Belvoir Town Center in February. Jeff Currer and
his wife, Merial, operate that location along with another
shop in Occoquan, Virginia.
“[Fort Belvoir] seemed like a good fit. Probably 90
percent of our customers are military or have served in the
military at one point,” Merial Currer said. “We saw what
water therapy could do and we wanted to see if that could
help anyone else.”
Despite the true dive season just
beginning, in their five months on the installation they
have had more than 200 people sign up for their mailing list
and the number of students in their Open Water Diver program
has more than doubled from 13 to 27.
“It's a growing
business, and we are just going into peak season,” said
Veronica Reese, Fort Belvoir's Services Business Manager.
“Their support of disabled vets and Wounded Warriors ties in
with our installation tenants.”
The Currers have
widespread military roots, stretching from Jeff's nearly
30-year-long stint as a captain in the Navy to Merial's 20
years of work supporting military spouses. In 2013, they
founded Patriots for Disabled Divers (PFDD), a nonprofit
organization seeking to train handicapped veterans to scuba
dive with no expense to them. That summer, they became the
official scuba program provider of the Wounded Warrior
Project. Since then, Jeff, who heads up PFDD, has travelled
across the nation to train about 400 Wounded Warriors to
dive.
“A lot of these military types are adrenaline
junkies, but a lot of them can't jump out of airplanes
anymore,” Merial Currer said. “So this offers a kinder,
gentler kind of rush for them.”
At Fort Belvoir,
Patriot Scuba sees service members coming through to get
their diving certification, undertake extra courses or to
get their families certified so they can dive together.
Through PFDD, they serve wounded veterans with disabilities
ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to quadriplegia.
Staton began diving with a grant he received from PFDD and,
since then, his wife and daughter have both taken courses
with Patriot Scuba.
“Being in the water gives me
back that sense of almost total freedom,” Staton said. “It's
been a great experience, and a family experience.”
By Julie Mitchell, U.S. Army & Air Force Exchange Service HQ
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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