CINCINNATI — Lt. Corporal Alex Nicoll is a retired Marine from Louisville sustained life-changing injuries when he served in the second battle of Fallujah in 2004.
“It was my second deployment to Iraq,” Nicoll recalled. “We were taking Fallujah. I was shot seven times and hit with a hand grenade.”
Nicoll’s injuries resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee, shrapnel wounds and a cracked vertebrae.
“When you wake up without a limb, things changed,” Nicoll said. “You have to adapt to all this. I woke up with what I still had and that’s what keeps me motivated. It’s not really about what I lost. It’s about what I still have.”
For Military Appreciation Day at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Nicoll is being presented a new track chair designed to improve mobility on all terrain.
The Independence Fund, CareSource and the Cincinnati Reds are teaming up to make this veterans life just a little bit easier after his sacrifice for our country.
“To date we’ve given away just over 2,500 to veterans across the United States,” Independence Fund Mobility Program Manager Nick Armendariz said. “The idea is to get these guys out of the house, and get them mobile, get them back out there, get them some independence.”
There are 4.7 million veterans with a service connected disability living in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Many of these vets rely on prosthetics for mobility, but over time those injuries become more severe and harder to manage.
Armendariz said each chair costs $16,000 on average, but donations and corporate sponsorships help make this process possible.
“For CareSource, it really is an extension of our commitment to serving special populations and their complex health needs like Alex has and trying to remove barriers for veterans like him,” CareSource Director of Portfolio Management Ted Painter said. “But also I think it’s really important to tell stories like Alex’s because it’s a reminder for all of us that freedom isn’t free.”
Nicoll also got the chance to enjoy some fall baseball as the Reds try to keep pace in the Wild Card against the Dodgers.
“I’ll be rooting for the Reds hard tonight for sure,” Nicoll said.
Nicoll said this chair is going to be a big boost to his morale and will allow him to get back to one of his favorite hobbies: hunting.
“You don’t learn a lot of transferrable skills in the military but hunting is one of them,” he said. “This will make it way easier for me to get out in the bush and get me around in all kind of hunting that I love to do.”
He said it will help with general mobility especially if his prosthetic gives him trouble.
He said he’s not used to being in the spotlight, but he’s grateful for all of the help.
“These sort of events change lives. It’s just super awesome,” Nicoll said.
