Shooting To Heal

Despite amputations above the right knee and on the left hand (partial), there seems to be no stopping point for Burgos and his service dog Gunny. Burgos is currently well on his way to a degree with magna cum laude honors and uses shooting to sharpen his goal-setting for school and overall success in life. For him, “Short-term goal is make a good shot. Long-term goal is win the match.”

Walking into the range on Friday with a gold medal in archery already under his belt, McDaniel didn’t let the pressure get to him. After an impressive qualification and final, he won another gold in open air pistol to contribute to his team’s dominance. Competing in the Warrior Games for him is a huge honor, and something that is simply, “hard to put into words.”

Competing in both archery and airgun help McCleinnaiss overcome balance issues by forcing him to focus on a stationary target. This year, he captured the silver medal in recurve.

A Navy hospital corpsman, Sclater was most of the way through the screening process to join a Special Ops group when he injured his spinal cord and was unable to continue. This year is his first time attending the Warrior Games, which he describes as “humbling” and a “huge honor.” While he cannot run anymore, he competed in nine swimming races, earning four individual medals. Sclater says shooting helps his swimming abilities through development of visualization skills.

Hit in 2011 with an IED blast, Shockey suffers from traumatic brain injury and has issues with vision, which affect how he focuses on the target. Last year, he won a gold medal in pistol, then backed it up this year by winning the bronze.

Her first time attending the Warrior Games, Piper is a quick learner. This year her family and team cheered her on to a bronze medal in pistol. Besides her supporters, she relies heavily on visualization and other mental techniques to deliver a solid performance. While Piper wouldn’t qualify as a Paralympic athlete, she is considering pursuing pistol as an Olympic event.

For not even knowing what an air rifle was before Marine Corps trials last year, Aquino has proven himself exceptional. After only about seven months of training, in the 2013 Warrior Games he was tied for the gold medal in air rifle after both qualification and finals. He shot a near-perfect 10.7 to clinch the gold medal.

Injured in Iraq in 2004, Aquino is looking forward to reaching the 20-year mark in his service career next June.

When Stalder first picked up a rifle, he could not stop shaking as he pointed at the target (hence the nickname Shaky Jake). But as his technique came along, amazingly the shakiness began decreasing with every shot. This year, Stalder won the gold medal in prone rifle and the silver in standing rifle.

A native of Florida, Kimball competed in both shooting and sitting volleyball this year.

In nearly 27 years of shooting and coaching, Maj. Schwent has seen countless times the enormous therapeutic value of shooting. “Sometimes it’s not even about aiming, it’s just being able to pull the trigger,” he says.

A former medalist and excellent shooter, Nick is a testament to the healing power of competitive shooting. “Sometimes you just get lonely,” he says. But being on this team has given him back the sense of family and support he used to have while on active duty.

The only civilian coach at the competition this year, Royal recently began assistant coaching at Camp Lajeune for Battalion East.

Coach Paul says his true passion is coaching Marines. "I don't know about other services, but I know about Marines," he explains. "100 percent means 100 percent." To him, a coach is simply a tool to help change lives.