SHERIDAN — Don King Days had a special fan recently with an inspirational message for the crowd.
The annual celebration of the area's unique connection to equestrian events — rodeo, polo, roping etc. — is dedicated to King, a renowned saddle maker and ambassador for Western values and culture held over Labor Day weekend.
Wounded warrior, retired Army colonel and television and movie personality Greg Gadson was in Wyoming for the WYO West Warrior Foundation, which puts on an inspiring retreat for veterans every year in Sheridan.
The purpose of the retreat, Gadson told Cowboy State Daily, is to bring veterans together to begin a healing process.
As part of the retreat, Gadson and other veterans rode horses at area ranches and went target shooting from a helicopter. The weekend culminated with a bonfire at a ranch in the Big Horns, where each veteran could share a little about their journey and their progress toward healing.
Gadson knows a thing or two about that healing process. He was nearly killed by a roadside bomb during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007.
As a result of his injuries, he lost both of his legs just above the knees, and his right arm was seriously injured.
“I had just attended a memorial service for two soldiers who had been killed,” he told Cowboy State Daily about that day. “I was going back to headquarters.”
A Long, Hard Road
Gadson had no idea if he was going to survive the blast that hit his convoy.
Among his first thoughts after the blast was that he didn’t have his rifle. He also remembers his first sergeant resuscitating him, as well as the sound of a helicopter that was coming to rush him to emergency medical care.
Later, he was told he had nearly bled to death on the scene and that it took 70 pints of blood to save his life that first night.
Doctors had to resuscitate him several times, and ultimately he received more than 120 pints of blood.
Infection claimed his left leg. Doctors managed to save the right leg, but ultimately, Gadson gave up that leg as well to improve his long-term quality of life.
That was a hard decision for a former West Point football star.
Gadson had multiple surgeries since the explosion, but surviving the blast was about more than just putting his body back together. The real battle Gadson had to win was putting his spirit back together.
“Bitterness destroys you,” he said. “So let it go.”
Dragging things from yesterday just encumbers the present.
“Don’t feel bad about it, let it go,” he said.
Generosity Is Freeing
Gadson took a few moments during intermission to offer inspiring words to the crowd of thousands who filled up the sidelines at Don King Days, just before the National Anthem was sung.
His key point was a fact most of us have been told before. We can’t control what others around us do.
“Each of us has about 2 feet of space around us that we can control,” he told the crowd.
But that doesn’t have to mean we are powerless, Gadson added. We still have enormous power to influence those around us and to change the world in which we live.
Phone calls to someone who is having a hard time. Small acts of kindness — opening the door for someone who is struggling, paying it forward in the coffee line, telling a joke when someone needs a laugh.
The things we do to help others not only lift others around us up, but buoy our own souls as well.
Gadson encouraged everyone in the crowd to make the phone calls and take the actions that they were thinking of as he was speaking that day.
“Our journey in life informs us,” he told Cowboy State Daily after his speech. “It develops our perspective, our appreciation, our, you know, understanding. (But) we don’t come out of the hatch with them. We experience them, and then hopefully we process them in a way that’s constructive.”
Man On A Mission
In spite of all he’s been through, Gadson has an easy manner that has undoubtedly contributed to unexpected opportunities along his way. Like a speaking role in the movie “Battleship,” the role in Denzel Washington’s “A Journal For Jordan” and his role as Col. Jackson Ladd on “NCIS: LA.” He played a retired colonel who had lost the use of both legs.
He also had the chance to inspire the New York Giants on their way to a 2008 Super Bowl win.
Gadson has made it his mission to advocate for wounded veterans and those who are disabled, and he draws on some pretty tough experiences to convey what are serious life lessons.
But he hasn’t let the gravity of his message steal his sense of humor along the way.
One moment he might be talking about how war takes a part of a person’s soul. The next, he is laughing and pointing out that he can’t get cold feet anymore.
“Laughter cleanses your soul,” he said, smiling as he sees that his little joke has had the desired effect, lifting the mood of those around him.
He feels that he is not just a teacher, but a student as well, learning just as much from others as they learn from him.
“Our pain is the same,” he said. “And we’re all on an expiring contract. Tomorrow is not promised. If you get tomorrow, then live that day the best that you can.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
