Despite a crash during the road bike circuit race, Army Staff Sgt. Zed Pitts, a heavy equipment operator with the Army Reserve’s 465th Engineering Company in Birmingham, Alabama, finished and the next day took home the silver medal in the men’s 100-meter dash at the Invictus Games in Orlando, Florida. In doing so, he cemented his spot on Team Army for the Defense Department’s 2016 Warrior Games.
The 2016 DoD Warrior Games, scheduled for June 15-21 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, is an adaptive sports competition for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans. Approximately 250 athletes will participate in eight sporting events, representing teams from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy/Coast Guard, Air Force, U.S. Special Operations Command and the United Kingdom armed forces. The sporting events are archery, cycling, track and field, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming and wheelchair basketball.
Illness, Recovery
Pitts, who is also a full time international studies student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, joined the Army Reserve 10 years ago to carry on his family’s military traditions. During a mobilization for Operation Enduring Freedom in December 2013, Pitts was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, Graves’ disease is an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones.
Pitts said his illness challenges his ability to stay physically fit. He has had compound hernias in his left arm, his endurance took a dive, his sleep was affected and his resting heart rate was 119 beats per minute. Always quick to find the positive outlook, Pitts worked with the doctors at the Fort Bliss, Texas, Warrior Transition Battalion to increase his endurance, improve his sleep and get into the adaptive sports program.
“My endurance really took off, so I was able to participate in the Army warrior trials,” he said. “Military adaptive sports helped me push beyond. I was an introvert and now I’m more social. I no longer focus on my disability. I capitalize on my abilities.”
Pitts said his illness makes him more resilient, and while at one point he was 50 pounds underweight and depressed, his spirits were lifted when he surrounded himself with other soldiers in the adaptive sports program.
“Resilience means to overcome -- push past the word ‘can’t,’” he said. “For anybody who is still in that dark place, you’re not alone. There are other soldiers going through similar or worse circumstances so you can look to them for example and guidance and advice on how to overcome whatever you’re going through.”
Friendships
Through adaptive, competitive sport, Pitts has discovered international friendships that he otherwise may not have realized. During last year’s DoD Warrior Games, he became friends with British Army Sgt. Andrew Perrin, who helped him following a bike crash.
“Me and Zed are really good friends,” Perrin said. We communicate all the time. He loves to ask me lots of training questions, which I’m not always able to answer but I help him out. Even today, I was shouting at him in the race to do things. It’s great. We make good friends.”
Pitts also became friends with a German runner.
“Zed is a beautiful person,” said German Army Sgt. 1st Class Naef Adebahr, who took the bronze medal in the men’s 200-meter dash at the Invictus Games. “He inspires me. I talk to him often. The camaraderie here is unbelievable.”
Importance of Games
Pitts said his training is what pulled him through to medal in running.
“[As a result of the cycling crash] I had a swollen hip and a bit of road rash but I just did my best,” he said. “I focused on my capabilities and trusted my training. The coaches have given me the tools I need to succeed so I just trust my training. I got out there and did the best I could.”
Pitts said events like the Invictus Games and the DoD Warrior Games give service members purpose.
For soldiers who may feel like they have no purpose, “through sports or competitions like the Invictus Games, it re-establishes purpose, it re-establishes resiliency and it helps families become involved,” he said. “They’re able to show the world that hey, I’m not crippled. I just have to do things a little differently.”
He encourages service members to try adaptive sports because “once you have a purpose and establish goals and once you reach those goals, you feel good. It’s all about feeling good about what you do,” he said. “I encourage them to come out just to do adaptive sports, just pick one. If you don’t like, it there’s many others that you can pick. You’re going to have fun.”
Pitts said more than anything, he wants disabled service members and veterans to take away a sense of strength and the feeling of “I can and I am -- I am not my condition. I am not my amputated leg. I am what I can do,” he said.
Pitts also said that the Invictus Games and the DoD Warrior Games are not just rehabilitation but about having fun, establishing new relationships, “getting family involved with your rehabilitation and seeing you’re not alone in your struggle. There’s other people out there you can reach out to that’s maybe going through the same thing you have but for longer, so you can look to them as a role model to help you with your issues,” he said.