Veteran Energy works to contribute to the lives of the heroes who defend and promote the freedoms that make us great. One way we contribute is to share these men’s and women’s stories. This is the tale of a former member of the United States Marine Corps, Ralph DeQuebec, who paid a very high price in the service of his country–his two legs–and discovered a not commonly known sport that gave him back his reason to live.
As stated in an article that was originally published in Sports Illustrated, Ralph hails from Pennsylvania and joined the Marine Corps in 2002 at the age of 19. He was tasked with munitions inventory at Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. In 2005, he trained at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, learning explosive ordinance disposal. For the next five years, he logged two deployments in the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But in June 2012, with the First Marine Special Operations Battalion, he was sent on a secret operation to Shurakay in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. He was to assist in blowing up a bridge. Near a choke point, an Afghan coalition member stepped on an IED.
The next thing he knew, Ralph found himself in Bethesda, Maryland, at Walter Reed National Military Center, hooked up to machines, heavily bandaged and sedated. He had suffered a brain injury, partial amputations on his left pinky and right thumb, lacerations on his arms and both legs amputated above the knee. He had already undergone at least 30 surgeries.
He started physical therapy. After a promising start and time spent recuperating, visitors and phone calls dwindled, and his state of mind declined. His testosterone treatment was failing, and it was affecting his emotions.
It was during this low point in 2013, one day in the gym, that another wounded soldier told Ralph about the sport of sled hockey, different from ice hockey in that players are strapped to sleds with blades underneath. At first, Ralph thought nothing of it, but the soldier was persistent. Very persistent. Finally, after pressure from his wife and sister, Ralph decided to give it a try.
He played for USA Warriors, a nonprofit sled hockey team that first came to Walter Reed in 2008; by 2012, sled hockey clinics for the disabled were introduced at the hospital. After a couple of months of training, he tried out a game and found himself overwhelmed. But slowly, he began to gain confidence and was surprised when he threw his whole body into an opponent and there was no whistle. He truly loved the sport.
By 2014, some 70 operations after Ralph’s initial injury, he was still playing, learning how to avoid body contact (on doctor’s orders) and figuring out how to play the game smarter. At a Sled Hockey Jamboree staged by USA Hockey, Team USA’s head coach was impressed by Ralph’s playing and gave him a spot on the national development team. So Ralph started playing against Canadian teams and honing his skills further. By 2015, he was healthy and earned a second year on the team.
When he first entered Walter Reed, Ralph obsessed over the things he would never be able to do again. But “I finally found something that I wanted to wake up for every day,” he said, adding that the sport had taken over his life.
By mid-2015, he was learning to walk with prosthetics. He had found hope.
That’s The Power to Give Back™.
