David davis provides the history of the first Wheelchair Basketball Team comprise a world war ii veterans. Its a great honor to be at bromance. I spent many evenings on the second floor listening to local authors speak about their the o really appreciate the invitation. What to say hi to everybody out there who i havent i have beeo see facetoface in person, so thank you for tuning in. Obviously doubly honored ron kovic has agreed to speak with me tonight about the book. Ron kovic, not kovac. Not go back. We were introduced by tom hobart, sports need a writer and ron has been very encouraging and helped me quite a bit with this book in terms of background and research and so forth. Ron of course was a vietnam veteran. Most of the book that i wrote is about world war ii veterans are just want to give you a little background before we start speaking. Before world war ii if you are paralyzed you were pretty much a dead ender, and no hope or as they were called. The average life span was a
Not kovach. We were introduced i tom, local scribe here years ago and ron has been very encouraging and helped me quite a bit with this book in terms ofbackground and research and so forth. Ron of course was a vietnam veteran. Most of the book that i wrote is about world war ii veterans and i just wanted to give you background before ron and istart speaking. Before world war ii if you were paralyzed you were pretty much a dead end her, i know hope as they were called. Its the average lifespanwith 18 months for someone wounded in world war i. World war ii was the game changer. The advent of penicillin, they had surgical units right behind the battlefield, right behind the front line and they had better evacuation back to the mainland. So by the end of world war ii we do have a cohort of about 2500 us veterans who are paralyzed and returned home and they had a chance at a normal life and this was the first cohort that was going to have this and it presented a dilemma and a bit of an issu