NEWRY — On Thanksgiving Day 2004, during his second tour in Iraq, Marine Cpl. Justin Galipeau of Saco was riding in a Humvee with fellow 2nd Marine Infantrymen in Iskandariya.

After returning from a 12-hour foot patrol, they were sent to locate and engage an enemy that had mortared American positions.

The Humvee suddenly struck an improvised explosive device — six 155-mm tank rounds —  that blew a 4½-foot crater in the ground and rolled the Humvee about five times.

Galipeau suffered light shrapnel in his lower back, nerve loss and damage in his legs, and multiple herniated discs in his spine. The injury ended his military career.

But thanks to Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation, Galipeau and his wife, Kelsey, are in town to participate in the eighth annual Veterans No Boundaries winter sports retreat. It started Friday at Sunday River Ski Resort and ends Monday, Feb. 4.

The program offers alpine and Nordic skiing, snowmobiling and many other activities. The weekend and program are entirely free of charge for all attendees, thanks to sponsors, donors and volunteers.

Galipeau, 29, who has limited mobility, said he suddenly felt like a child in a candy store when they arrived Friday morning.

“I love cold weather, but with the limitations I now have, it’s difficult to do anything,” he said. “But here, I want to try to do almost every event. I’m excited. It’s good to challenge myself.”

He said they had a great time alpine skiing on Friday.

“It was our first time with that, and today we’re going to do some snowmobiling and we’re going to try a biathlon, and we’re looking forward to it,” Galipeau said.

When they arrived, he said, “It was nice to have the help and support and welcoming arms and hearts of Maine Adaptive volunteers and fellow veterans.”

On meeting other disabled veterans from wars back to Vietnam, Galipeau said at first it was scary.

“You’re very timid, just because that’s what you read about your whole life, is what the older veterans did,” he said. “And now, they just open up their hearts and minds and they just take you in and you feel not as a young veteran, but as a veteran in their era, also. So you’re accepted by them, which is a great feeling.”

Roughly 15 of the 27 veterans attending the retreat sustained significant injuries during combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Eric Topper, Maine Adaptive’s director of outreach.

Mike Pyle of Indianapolis was a 50-caliber combat gunner with the U.S. Navy aboard CH-46 helicopters during Operation Desert Storm from 1989 through 1993. Exposure to toxic chemicals released during the war gave him cancer, from which he lost his right leg about two years ago, he said.

“I’ve done more since I lost my leg,” he said while taking a break from learning how to do Nordic skiing in a sit-ski apparatus.

Pyle said he wears a prosthetic leg and enjoyed learning how to snowboard on Friday. Like Galipeau, he said he likes the camaraderie and challenges of doing winter sports with his limitations.

“I’m learning new things I never tried before and just the experience and all is just great,” Pyle said. “I get to meet new people here and I see these guys doing this and there’s no reason why I can’t do it, too.”

Earlier, Pyle and the Galipeaus and fellow veterans, their families and attendees watched two-time Olympic biathlete and Army veteran Kristina Sabasteanski of Raymond give a biathlon demonstration at Sunday River Inn & XC Center.

Her brother, Patrik Viljanen, the Adaptive Program manager with the New England Nordic Ski Association, assisted. Viljanen, also a 27-year veteran of the Vermont National Guard, skied a course, then dropped to the ground, aimed and fired a laser rifle at electronic targets in the distance. He then stood and skied the course again.

Intrigued, Galipeau said he wanted to try that on Saturday afternoon. But most veterans in the first group spent the morning learning how to adapt to Nordic skiing, while the Galipeaus joined the snowmobiling group at the Bear River Grange Hall.

Sabasteanski and Maine Adaptive volunteer Regis Saucier of Bethel helped Marine veteran Andrew “Dallas” Rosacker of Gardiner, Mass., learn Nordic skiing.

Rosacker served 10 years in the U.S. Marines before suffering a head injury in 2003 in Iraq. A subsequent stroke believed related to the injury paralyzed the left side of his body seven years later, said his attendee, Joan Marie Trainque of Fitchburg, Mass.

To see Saucier and Sabasteanski trying different equipment to get Rosacker skiing “was so cool,” she said.

“These people amaze you,” Trainque said. “Everyone here’s like a MacGyver. There’s nothing that can stop anyone. These volunteers, they make me cry. They are just so wonderful.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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