Warriors on the Water!

[sponsonhead]

Yesterday, The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum partnered with staff from The Veteran's Administration to roll out its latest project, Warriors on the Water. The goal of the program is to introduce post 911 lower leg amputee vets to the sport of APBA Stock Outboard racing.

Our "pilot project" test was a proof-of-concept testing session using a Larry Darneille built laydown CSH hull (owned by Seattle Outboard Association Commodore Daren Goehring) on Joint Base Lewis-McChord's Little American Lake. We worked with two potential new drivers who both took turns putting the boat through its paces, playing "follow the leader" with SOA member Shane Burkhart in his boat. At the end of the day, we had two men who were VERY enthusiastic about getting into boat racing, and looking forward to getting their own boats and coming racing with us!

Dr. Jeffrey Heckman of the Seattle VA was present, and was very instrumental in getting this program going, along with racing great Chip Hanauer, who is a volunteer at the Seattle VA.

Going forward, HARM is looking into the possibilities of establishing a program similar to its successful J Hydro Project, where new racers would build and race their own boats, with assistance from Museum volunteers and local outboard racers.

A special thanks to all who helped make this day possible: Security Race Products, for building safety equipment for drivers at no cost; David Williams, Jim Mesick, Shane Burkhart, Jim Nilsen, Dr. Heckman, Chip Hanauer, Nick Ehli, Bud McKay, Doug Southern, and a number of others who showed up and lent their support to this effort. This program, though in its infancy, has the potential to be a HUGE win to APBA and all of boat racing!

R-19

[Brian10s]

Fantastic idea! Congrats to the Vets who went through the program and Thanks to all involved for getting this going.

[Daveracer]

What a great program! I would be happy to help these guys build boats.....they sure deserve our help and support.....

[Dennis Crews]

Absolutely awesome. Thank you to all who had the foresight, drive, and dedication to make this happen. These things don't come about without a great deal of planning and effort but oh my, what a worthwhile cause. Awesome!

[Dave M]

This deserves a bump. I am very proud of you guys and this project. It is very heart warming to know this took place. Please, spread the word and let this be very public information. I would have liked to contribute ahead of time instead of reading about it after the fact. This is a great idea, thank you SOA.

[DeanFHobart]

Congratulations to the Vets.... and SOA, The Hydroplane Museum, The VA and all who put this together. This stuff needs to be publicized more.... It's great stuff.

Region 10 is doing great things.

Congratulations to all.

[sponsonhead]

This deserves a bump. I am very proud of you guys and this project. It is very heart warming to know this took place. Please, spread the word and let this be very public information. I would have liked to contribute ahead of time instead of reading about it after the fact. This is a great idea, thank you SOA.

Thanks for the kind words, Dave.

The response to this has been overwhelming. And as far as contributing publicity ahead of time, there were a number of factors at play that prevented us from giving advance publicity of the program (most of Seattle Outboard didn't even know about this....nor did they have a reason to, since it was a HARM project, not SOA's). In the long run, we felt is was better to do our proof of concept test and publicize it afterwards.

This has the potential for National implications, both from publicity and growing the sport. We'll keep you all posted as it goes forward.

R-19

[Dave M]

Pat, we do a Warrior In The Field Program (take a wounded Vet hunting) around here, and we advertise the heck out of it in advance. We ask for volunteers to take the vets out and safely show them a good time. I was not aware of any imoplications either National or private. At least the govt. has not shut it dfown yet, so I assume it is good to go on our end. I don't care how you go about it Pat, just keep on doing it, it is awesome and very rewarding for both the vet and the volunteer.

[Daveracer]

I had a long conversation with Pat after the fact, and this program might be just what outboarding needs to get back in the spotlight....we used to be the "big dogs" sports wise around here, and while we will never of course be able to compete with the Seahawks etc, we can become relevent again with the right backing. Dave

[Shane_B]

Here is a write up on the proof-of-concept event in the JBLM post paper, the Northwest Guardian:
~~http://www.nwguardian.com/2014/05/15...-amputees.html

[boatracer69r]

Good job Dave, Pat, and everyone else who has got this program going. Being a disabled vet myself I love seeing programs that either help soldiers safely get the adrenaline rush we got during the war or get back to normalcy. Coming back from the war hurt and messes up, it's nice to know people care about the soldiers regardless of their views on the war. If yall need any help with this program please let me know.

[Mrs blueskyracer]

Great Job Pat and all of the others that helped and contributed. Programs and stories like this are what hydroplane racing is supposed to be about. Fun for everyone!