WEBVTT

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[bicycle pedaling]

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[water splashing]

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[breathing]

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(Male soldier) Wooo!

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[film projector]

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[somber music]

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(Female Veteran) My world was crushed because the Army was all I knew,

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and I'm like, "What am I going to do now?"

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You know, I still -- I guess it's just the whole thing

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about being a part of something, part of something bigger,

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you know, a team, a family.

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And I had been doing this for nine years

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And I'm like, "What, what do I do now?"

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[somber music]

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(Male Veteran) Me, personally, coming to Army trials

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it gives me another opportunity to compete for the United States

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compete for the Army, and you know, hopefully from here

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I can, you know, uh, kind of restart my adaptive career

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and continue, maybe someday, get back to the Paralympics

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and wear red, white and blue on my back again.

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[somber music]

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(Second Male Veteran) Adaptive sports, the Warrior Games,

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the trials, I mean, with my recovery it saved my life.

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You know, I was in a bad spot,

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then I had a guy one day just --

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they say things happen for a reason -- he caught me in the hallway

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and he kind of is like, "Hey man, if you're scared to play

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don't come and play."

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And ever since then I've been in the trials and games,

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just being competitive again saved my life.

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[soft piano]

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(Third Male Veteran) I was pretty frustrated when I first had to get retired,

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because I didn't want to.

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I didn't want to leave Iraq.

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When I was injured, I was fully conscious.

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I was awake when they had to amputate me,

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and I couldn't have any pain medicine

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because I had lost so much blood,

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and I remember yelling at my company commander

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and he was telling me "You need to go home."

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"I still have my trigger finger, sergeant, uh, sir."

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And I didn't want to leave my guys.

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I felt like I had failed my mission,

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I felt like I was abandoning them.

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[soft piano, splashing]

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I feel like I'm not forgotten by the Army,

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I feel like I'm still part of the Army somehow.

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And I'd like to hope I can still help contribute

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to give something back and serve in a small way,

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even if it's just letting freshly injured amputees,

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burn victims, PTSD, whatever level of injuries --

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I've never compared injuries,

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pain is pain.

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And I think it would be,

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it feels good to know that they can see a triple amp

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and say, "Hey, maybe I can give this a shot maybe."

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And I see them, and say, "Oh, I can give that a shot too."

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And we just pick each other up

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just as if we were in a line unit.

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[somber music]

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[crowd clapping, talking]

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(Second Male Veteran) Thank you to everybody who comes out to support us,

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you guys are awesome.

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The staff, the squad leaders, the cadre,

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the coaches are amazing,

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and most of all the athletes.

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This wouldn't be possible without the athletes.

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You know, Go Team Army, let's go down to Tampa and whoop some butt!

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(Army coach) You know you're here for a reason.

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It's so many people who could've been here,

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but they picked you!

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You must understand, it's so many people out there

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who wanna replace you.

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This is your moment to shine!

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Nobody takes that from you!

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Nobody can beat you, and you've proven that

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by getting here!

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What's your number one rule?

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[group cheers]

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(group) Go Army!

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[upbeat music]

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[upbeat techno music, camera clicking]