“When I enlisted in the army, my father said, ‘I’m going to tell you two things, duck, and the second thing is, choose your lane, stay in it.  Don’t change lanes just because somebody else does.  Choose what you want to do.’  I followed that advice and became one of the best snipers in the army.   I spent 26 years, almost half of my life in the military.  If I was still able, I would still be in the military.

I’ll turn sixty soon, and I have been healthy my whole life.  I lost my eye sight about five years ago.  So to have this happen is quite a shock.  I mean I was wounded while I was in the military, but nothing that was life threatening.  So this was hard to go through, it really  was.

This eye’s not real, it’s fake.  My artery collapsed on the vein going into the eye and caused a blood clot that pushed against the optic nerve so I can’t see.  And now that’s what’s happening to the other eye.  So in April they’ll remove this eye.  I’ll be totally blind.

Four years ago at the rehab center I met a guy who was not only blind, he was deaf.  He’s been that way his whole life.  But he, he had the greatest attitude, you know.  Here’s a guy who has never heard a bird, he’s never seen anything on TV, yet he had such a great attitude.  So that got me thinking.  I backed up and I said, ok these are your choices.  What are you gonna do now?  This is all you got to work with.

My thing right now, my inspiration, is being able to help other people and get them to a point where they accept hey, I’m blind, I’m not disabled.  That’s the way I try to live my life now.  My goal is to not let other people who are blind sink into that dark place that I went to.

I’m president of my Lions Club.  I started a National Federation for the Blind Chapter and I’m the president of that.  I sit of the board of the NFB.  I sit on the governor’s board for the deaf and blind for the state of North Carolina.  I just recently was sworn in as the state and district chair for Camp Dogwood.  The key for me is just to stay busy.  That’s the most therapeutic thing for me.

The one thing I’ve learned is I won’t let my blindness define who I am.  I don’t give up and I don’t say can’t. I just don’t.  I just don’t do it.”