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Wounded warriors hit the hill at Keystone |
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Sunday, January 29, 2012 13:24 |
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Photo by Mark Fox, Summit Daily News
By CADDIE NATH, SUMMIT DAILY NEWS
KEYSTONE — Petty Officer 2nd Class Benjamin Brown's six years in the U.S. Navy left him scarred inside and out.
After support deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea, he was medically discharged in 2009 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and extensive physical injures he sustained while doing military police work at his home base in Washington.
Five years and six surgeries later, he is finally beginning the healing process — on the slopes.
“This is amazing,” Brown said of his experience learning to snowboard Saturday. “All those injuries set you back and put you in your head. Snowboarding allows me to get out of my head. The way I look at it is … if I can face my fears out there, like, I've got to do this turn and it's scary, I'm going fast, I could fall, but I've got to just do it, then that allows me to face one more fear out in the regular world.”
Brown is one of 22 injured military service members taking part in the Wounded Warriors program at Keystone this weekend, as more than 2,000 active military personnel from all over the country gathered at the resort for the annual SnoFest event.
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