Double amputee, single amputee make cross-country ride to benefit Semper Fi Fund
By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
The Joplin Globe, Mo.
Published: June 26, 2015
Two surf instructors assist Cpl. Toran Gaal, a double amputee, onto his surfboard to catch another wave during the Operation Amped surf clinic at San Onofre Beach, Calif., in August, 2013.
U.S. Marines
gaal 1
Marine Cpl. Toran Gaal walks on his new prosthetics in the Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care facility at Naval Medical Center San Diego in February, 2012.
Jessica L. Tounzen/U.S. Navy
PITTSBURG, Kan. (Tribune News Service) — Four years ago on June 26, an improvised explosive device blew U.S. Marine Sgt. Toran Gaal’s left leg off, severely damaged his right leg, crushed the left side of his head and claimed part of his brain.
Beginning on Friday, he will propel a hand cycle east into Missouri on a 3,000-plus mile trip across the U.S. He’ll hit the halfway point about the Fourth of July, predicted his one-man support crew, Brian Riley.
Riley, a fellow Marine, was on foot patrol in Afghanistan in 2011 when machine gun fire penetrated his left leg, which had to be amputated.
At the top of their trip’s blog is the mantra: “The only limits in life are those we set for ourselves.”
Gaal, a corporal infantry rifleman in 15 Charlie Company with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was chosen to serve as a member of the Presidential Guard and was the second Marine to stand behind President Barack Obama during his inauguration.
It was on Gaal’s second deployment to Afghanistan that the blast occurred; the night before the explosion, he had announced his intention to re-enlist.
Two months later, he awakened from a coma and had no memory of the explosion. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound former athlete spent two and a half years in physical therapy at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. It was at Freedom Station, where veterans re-acclimate to civilian life, that he met Riley.
They didn’t like each other.
“Actually, I hated him,” Gaal said.
But they found something in common: a desire to compete in adaptive sports.
Gaal eventually surfed competitively in Hawaii, entered cross-fit competitions in the San Diego area and completed marathons.
He and Riley also found they had something else in common: a desire to support other veterans and their families the way they had been supported by the Semper Fi Fund, which to date has given 63,900 grants worth $107 million.
They began planning a coast-to-coast trip. Gaal would ride, and Riley would provide vehicular support. Photos of their planning sessions show them both on a living room floor, prosthetic legs cast to the side, poring over maps and a laptop.
“I looked at my situation,” Gaal said, “and I saw an opportunity.”
“I got support after my injuries, and I wanted to pay it forward.”
Gaal’s ride began June 1 in San Diego. He plans to arrive in Arlington, Virginia, on Aug. 2, where he will visit the Iwo Jima and Marine Corps memorials. At the end of his ride, he will place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Plans also are in the works, Riley said, for an appearance on “Good Morning America.”
Riley drives a van emblazoned with the logos of sponsors and a “Caution, bike ahead” sign. The pair communicate via walkie-talkie while en route.
“I try to give him a heads up when a semi is coming,” Riley said.
There have been the usual challenges that all cross-country cyclists face: Flat tires — sometimes several on the same day — and shredded brakes on steep downhill descents. Weather. Tough climbs. Monotonous stretches in the heat. Insects.
But perhaps the biggest challenge is that to propel himself along country roads, highways and city streets, Gaal must be in a reclining position — nearly flat — on his hand cycle, which sits just mere inches off of the pavement, and use nothing but his arms for momentum.
And Kansas, he found, is not flat.
“Any time you’re using your arms to propel yourself for that length of time, it’s not flat,” he said.
On Thursday at 1 a.m., they left Chanute, Kansas, bound for Girard and then Pittsburg.
“We’re trying to beat the heat,” Riley said. “We started that in Arizona, where it would climb to 100 or more during the day. We started getting up at 3 a.m., then eventually it just became easy to get up at midnight and get on the road.”
In Girard, they were met by a law enforcement escort, two cyclists and several motorcyclists from the Pittsburg American Legion, who led them into Pittsburg. There, a contingent from Pittsburg Police Department and Fire Department greeted them with an American flag flying from an aerial truck, then toured them through the Beard-Shanks Law Enforcement Center.
Pittsburg resident Caleb Linn, a U.S. Marine who was shot in the femoral artery in Afghanistan in 2010, then survived a brain tumor and paralysis in 2012, was one of the cyclists who escorted Gaal into town.
Linn is a member of Team Semper Fi and rode a bike that the Semper Fi Fund helped pay for.
“A lot of people discount their abilities or make an excuse,” Linn said.
He downplayed his efforts to support Gaal on Thursday as insignificant.
“This is a small contribution,” he said. “I don’t want recognition for me; the glory goes to (Gaal).”
But after his service, his injuries, his rehabilitation and making it nearly halfway across the U.S., Gaal does not, in fact, consider himself a hero.
“Heroes are the ones who aren’t here anymore,” he said. “I’m just an everyday, ordinary person. If Americans want to call me that, it is what it is, but the heroes are the ones who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. My job is to continue to instill in Americans respect for their country, to be good citizens.”
Nor does he want pity.
“It’s a blessing,” Gaal said of where he’s at in life now. “It’s how I met an amazing woman, Lisa Graves, who is now my fiancee. She interviewed me for a book she was writing, and we fell in love.”
“I am becoming a better man because of her,” he said. “I’m becoming a better person overall. A lot of my dreams are becoming realities because of her.”
She is a driving force behind his trip, he said, and is the point person for media, accommodations, cities they’re passing through, website updates and emails.
He’s proud to have raised $12,000 of his $40,000 goal, but he wants to raise more.
“I challenge every person in each city we visit to donate $1,” Gaal said.
“Not just for us — for the next generation of warriors who are going to have to endure the hardships we did for recovery.”
Gaal can be followed at
www.torangaal.com, on Facebook at Ride Across America, and on Twitter at @SoloRAAM.
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/double-amputee-single-amputee-make-cross-country-ride-to-benefit-semper-fi-fund-1.354921
