Page 12 - JSOM Winter 2018

Bragg Soldiers Representing Team USA
at Invictus Games

Written by Drew Brooks
Reprinted with permission from The Fayetteville Observer
(https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20181020/bragg-soldiers-representing-team-usa-at-invictus-games).

irst Sgt. Jarrid Collins knows he doesn’t look like everyone
Felse.
The Special Forces medic opted to have his left leg amputated
below the knee in 2014, after years of battling combat injuries.

Michael Bottoms/U.S. Special Operations Command. Members of Team USA take instruction during wheelchair basketball Shawn Sprayberry/U.S, Air Froce.

training in preparation for the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney,
Australia.

rugby.
Army 1st Sgt Jarrid Collins rests before the indoor rowing School, will compete in rowing, track, cycling and wheelchair
competition during the 2018 Warrior Games. Collins, assigned to the Some of the sports come more naturally to him than others.
John F. Kennedy Warfare Center and School, will next compete as
part of Team USA at the Invictus Games in Australia later this month.
Collins competed in track and field events in high school and
college. And he has continued to run marathons, even after
And his two boys are now old enough to notice. losing his left leg.

“They know Daddy is different,” Collins said earlier this month. The decision to compete in wheelchair rugby, however, boiled
down to a “Why not?” Collins said.
Now Collins is on a mission to show his children—and the
world—that his missing leg doesn’t define him. Or make him In Oxnard, California, at Port Hueneme Navy Base, Collins
any less of a warrior. said Team USA was coming together to build teamwork and
cohesion ahead of the international games.
“You try to earn your place at the table every day in our com-
munity,” the Fort Bragg soldier said. “It’s a really great team,” he said. “We’ve got some great
competitors.”
In California earlier this month, Collins trained with more
than 70 other members of the U.S. Military’s Team USA, Athletes were chosen from U.S. Special Operations Command,
which will compete later this month in Sydney, Australia as the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, officials said.
part of the 2018 Invictus Games.
Everyone chosen to represent their country has a common
The games, based on the Department of Defense’s Warrior goal, Collins said, to dig hard, dig deep and do their best in
Games, will include more than 550 wounded, ill and injured Australia.
service members from 18 allied nations. They’ll compete in
11 adaptive sports, including archery, rowing, powerlifting, “Everyone is here to give it our all,” he said.
cycling, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and sailing.
The Invictus Games began today. They were founded in 2014
Collins, who serves with the Special Warfare Medical Group by the United Kingdom’s Prince Harry, following a 2013 visit
at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and to the U.S. military’s Warrior Games.

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