doubleamputee marine vet joins nypd
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Double-amputee Marine vet joins NYPD

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Double-amputee Marine vet joins NYPD

Matias Ferreira (centre) celebrates with his two-year-old daughter, his wife (left) and mother
BRENTWOOD, N.Y - Arab today

The wounded warrior is now a cop - and he’ll be walking the beat on titanium legs.

Matias Ferreira, a former US Marine Corps lance corporal who lost his legs below the knee when he stepped on a hidden explosive in Afghanistan in 2011, is joining a suburban New York police department.

The 28-year-old graduated Friday from the Suffolk County Police Academy on Long Island following 29 weeks of training.

The 6’1’’, 98kg rookie passed all the physical training and other requirements just like any other recruit, including running a mile and a half in around 11 minutes. He begins patrols next week, a department spokesman said.

“I just really want to be able to help people,” said Ferreira, who immigrated to the US from Uruguay as a child. “I want to be involved in the community, and the police department definitely allows you to do that.

Ferreira was on patrol in Afghanistan on Jan. 21, 2011, when he jumped off a roof in a compound suspected of being a Taliban outpost.

“As soon as I landed I knew something was wrong because it was like a movie almost. I heard a noise and everything went black,” he said. A bomb had gone off beneath his legs, amputating both below the knees. “I just saw blood throughout my pants.”

He was evacuated to a local hospital. Within days, he was back in the US being treated for his injuries. Three months later he was wearing prosthetic legs.

“I was up and walking in prosthetics and really just starting my new life,” he said.

That new life has included many activities he had never tried before the explosion. He has played on a softball team of wounded warriors. He skydives, scuba dives, snowboards and rides a motorcycle.

Raised in Georgia, he met his future wife, Tiffany, when his softball team played a game on Long Island in 2012. The couple now has a 2-year-old daughter.

After working as a steamfitter, welding while hanging off bridges and overpasses, Ferreira decided to take the exam to become a police officer. He scored a perfect 100, and his fellow recruits later elected him class president.

“He has served this great country with outstanding distinction, and will now serve and protect the residents of Suffolk County,” Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said in a statement.

Ferreira acknowledges the job will bring challenges, but approaches his new career with a sense of humour. He said he was once asked during academy training whether he has concerns about injuries.

“If I break my leg, I go in the trunk and put on a different one and I keep on going,” he said.

He lives by the motto that “life without limbs is limitless.”

“The only disability we have is the ones that we make,” he said

source : gulfnews

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

doubleamputee marine vet joins nypd doubleamputee marine vet joins nypd

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

doubleamputee marine vet joins nypd doubleamputee marine vet joins nypd

 



GMT 13:42 2015 Saturday ,04 April

Libyan warplane targets camp in Gharyan town

GMT 15:14 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

UN documents nearly 1,500 child soldiers in Yemen

GMT 07:24 2017 Sunday ,01 October

Mexico unlikely to find more quake survivors

GMT 16:15 2015 Wednesday ,11 November

German intelligence 'spied' on Fabius, FBI, UN bodies

GMT 01:32 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Russia's Putin earns about 157,000 USD in 2016

GMT 16:30 2017 Saturday ,15 July

Minister of planning gives priority

GMT 19:45 2017 Wednesday ,05 April

President of Senegal Meets Attorney General

GMT 05:18 2017 Thursday ,21 September

Over 80 missing after migrant boat sinks off Libya

GMT 19:22 2017 Saturday ,01 April

UN: Number of Syrian Refugees Tops 5 million

GMT 15:16 2016 Thursday ,29 September

FBI to put up database on police use of deadly force

GMT 05:06 2016 Friday ,30 September

Indian markets open flat

GMT 01:57 2017 Tuesday ,10 October

Twin suicide bombs kill 13 near Mogadishu airport

GMT 02:25 2017 Friday ,08 September

UAE celebrates National Day at Expo 2017 Astana

GMT 06:19 2017 Sunday ,08 January

Bleaching poses the gravest threat to coral reefs

GMT 12:35 2017 Monday ,18 September

Elham Shahin happy for “Day for Women”

GMT 09:46 2017 Thursday ,22 June

US existing home sales unexpectedly rise in May

GMT 02:36 2017 Tuesday ,10 January

US embassy condemns Al-Arish suicide attack

GMT 10:34 2017 Sunday ,26 November

czar faces graft probe
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday