Bud Davis, with some devoted supporters, constructed a special handicap-accessible dock on his lake and acquired specialized skiing equipment for amputees in order to create Adaptive Water Ski Warriors, a free waterski training program for veterans with both visible and invisible wounds. Bud with his daughter, Sue Price, and granddaughters, Sadie and Cora Price. Photo courtesy of Jason Price
While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended, they still impact the lives of Columbia’s many veterans. A feeling of alienation among veterans is nothing new; this theme has been expressed in literature since at least the plays of Sophocles. In ancient Athens, the entire city — the male population of which would have been comprised almost entirely of veterans — gathered as a community to watch plays like Philoctetes and Ajax to experience a collective sense of emotional catharsis. In our modern society, numerous organizations have taken up the task of providing community and emotional support for our own alienated veterans.
Adaptive Water Ski Warriors
When Bud Davis’s father deeded him 75 acres of land just outside Columbia, it had already been in his family for nine generations. It had previously been used for farming and tree harvesting. Several years after that Bud wanted to add something special to this family land. As an avid water skier who has coached the University of South Carolina ski teams, Bud wanted to build a lake designed especially for competitive water skiing. He had water-skied for years on nearby Lake Murray, but the increasing number of boats on the lake made it hazardous for novices. He dreamed of a quiet lake where new skiers could focus entirely on learning the sport of the slalom course.
To build his lake, Bud had to seek the approval of various state and federal agencies. Not all of them were enthusiastic. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, for example, agreed that his proposed project was technically feasible, but the agency told him that the project should be abandoned since a lake on the property “would be a waste of resources.” But he pressed forward anyway, and the project was completed in 2009.
More than a decade later, Bud has shown it is a great use of resources. Once he was the proud owner of his own private lake, Bud began to host successful water ski classes for children. After years of teaching these courses, Bud was contacted by USA Water Ski to see if he would be willing to do something similar for disabled veterans. The result was Adaptive Water Ski Warriors, a free waterski training program for veterans with disabilities. To get started, Bud constructed a special handicap-accessible dock, and by partnering with USA Water Ski & Wake Sports, Bud was able to get specialized equipment for skiers with missing arms or legs. He says the veterans who have come through the course have loved it. “My team and I are proud to show our appreciation to the people who have served our country, defended our freedom, and lost some of their freedom in the process,” Bud says.
The ultimate goal of Bud’s instruction is to get the veterans ready for the lake’s slalom course. The slalom course is standardized consisting of obstacle buoys that the water skier must successfully navigate. Skiers start a slalom competition being pulled by a 75-foot rope and traveling at 15.5 mph. Once a skier masters the course at this lowest speed, the course is made more challenging by shortening the rope that connects the skier to the boat and by incrementally increasing the boat’s speed or skipping up. Bud says veterans particularly love how they can challenge themselves to complete the course faster and with shorter rope. “I wouldn’t attempt to imagine the war memories of what these soldiers go through. But the brain can only process so much at one time,” Bud says. “So if I can get them excited about skiing, they may be distracted from their trauma and think about the course.”
One of Bud’s favorite parts about his lake is that it is a family project — Sue Price, his daughter, helps with the administrative work and water skiing, and his two young granddaughters are often present to greet the veterans with smiles and hugs. And many of the children he has trained to ski over the years, now grown, are back at the lake as instructors themselves. Once trained to use the specialized equipment, they too are helping teach disabled veterans to get on the water. Far from being a waste of resources, “Bud Lake” has created a community that connects people from across generations and backgrounds, centered on the fun and challenge of water skiing.
Team River Runner
Adaptive Water Ski Warriors is not the only watersports organization for veterans in the Midlands. Team River Runner, a national nonprofit organization for veterans, has a chapter in Columbia. The organization provides everything required to learn to kayak, from equipment to instruction, and is open to all active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. Khalid A. Kure, an active-duty, noncommissioned officer at Shaw Air Force Base, volunteers as one of the chapter’s coordinators.
Khalid got started with the organization by chance, all because his friend Charles Bray saw him wearing a brown uniform shirt while running at the Saluda Riverwalk. Seeing that Khalid was in the military, Charles told him that if he wanted to try out kayaking, Team River Runner would provide him with everything he needed to learn. Khalid decided to try one of its beginner courses. He hated everything about kayaking at first. “It was dreadful, brother,” he says. He hated flipping the kayak most of all. He says he would get so anxious beforehand that his legs would go numb. But for some reason, Khalid felt like he should keep going. He says this was partly because he saw disabled veterans, with missing arms or legs, whom Team River Runner had successfully taught to kayak. He felt that if the instructors could keep disabled people safe, he could trust them to help him learn. Now, having been through almost every course that Team River Runner offers, Khalid is an aspiring instructor himself. His training has also given him enough confidence to participate in kayaking competitions.
Team River Runner offers specialized courses to future instructors like Khalid to help them prepare for some of the different types of disabilities they might encounter when teaching veterans. He has learned how to assist veterans with missing limbs and blind veterans with their own specific challenges. The organization also provides specially designed equipment. One friend of Khalid, Johnny Brand, is a disabled veteran who suffered a debilitating stroke that has made the use of his right arm and leg very limited. However, with a specially designed outrigger kayak, this veteran has been able to participate as fully in the kayaking club as anyone else. “It is so rewarding to see him out there paddling,” Khalid says. “This is the spirit of our veterans in our country; they want to do things that excite them. And it is not just adrenaline; it is the relationship with water and nature. It has healing properties. Many veterans we help have invisible wounds like PTSD and high anxiety. We help people overcome those feelings. I know because it helped me. I am not the same man I used to be; it changed me in volumes.”
Kayaking is now a family event for all of the Kures, as Khalid has introduced kayaking to his wife and three young children. “Whenever we go to train, I tell my children that this is our ‘eddy.’ An eddy is the calm water behind a rock, and every time I go out there, I feel safe, like it is where I need to be.”
He says many active-duty personnel and veterans feel the same way about the organization. “When veterans talk about Team River Runner, they get so emotional, it is insane,” Khalid says. It was the community that the organization provided that kept Khalid going. When he got started, he says, “One thing that was sure — I would never go alone. There were always five to eight other people. I trusted them and believed in their mission. I had such trust they would keep me safe.”
Bullets and Bandaids
Robert LeHeup is also helping veterans through their darkest times, but his organization focuses on the cathartic experience of storytelling. Robert is a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in the initial stages of the invasion of Afghanistan, seeing action at the taking of Kandahar Airport and the Kabul Embassy. After leaving the service, he says that, again and again, he saw former comrades suffering from isolation, substance abuse, and anger issues. Feeling increasingly isolated, Robert was going down this road himself, suffering from suicidal ideations and anger. Then he had the opportunity to tell his own story at a TEDx talk. Robert says, “I wrote the story and realized I had a sense of ownership over it once I wrote it, and compounding that was the knowledge that the story had been heard.” Afterward, Robert thought other veterans might benefit from the same sort of experience.
To give other veterans that opportunity, Robert has founded Bullets and Bandaids, a nonprofit organization devoted to telling veterans’ stories. The process starts when an interviewer connects with a combat veteran, and the veteran gets, as Robert puts it, “to speak their truth, whatever it is they want to say, however they want to say it.” The organization then passes the completed interview on to a volunteer writer, who writes a narrative version of the veteran’s story, as interpreted through the author’s literary voice. Finally, the written work is passed on to an artist, who creates a unique artistic piece inspired by the veteran’s story, as interpreted by the writer. The collected stories and artwork are then showcased in an exhibition and a companion book. Robert says this is all about the veteran’s voice being heard. “The veteran can see what work has been done and can tell that the writer and artist have become a vessel for the veteran’s story, telling it through their perspective.” At exhibitions, each piece of art has a placard next to it with a QR code that viewers can use to listen to the accompanying story.
So far, Robert has interviewed veterans from privates to two-star generals, and from every American conflict since World War II. Robert is currently working on Bullets and Bandaids, Volume V, featuring 55 stories and artistic interpretations, which will begin touring in 2026. Selections from Volumes I-IV are still on tour and coming back to Columbia soon. They will be shown at the South Carolina State Museum this summer and at Richland County Library in the fall, with final dates to be announced soon.
Robert sees his nonprofit as both giving veterans an opportunity to tell their story and to connect with others in their community. He says, “Basically what you have is a way for people from across different generations, demographics, and geography to not just actively but eagerly invest in one another.” Robert says, “The program has had great success with veterans. I often hear from others, ‘I wouldn’t be here without Bullets and Bandaids.’” He says participants particularly appreciate being a part of something bigger than themselves. For many veterans, Robert says, “the ‘thank you for your service’ thing was a line of demarcation. You stay in your place, and I stay in mine. And you are either a hero or a broken veteran, with nothing in between.” In contrast, Robert hopes his project shows that each veteran is a unique individual with his or her own story. While the organization focuses on the United States, exhibitions have also included stories from veterans from seven other countries, most recently Ukraine. Involving people from other countries will hopefully reinforce the extent of potential support and commonality that these veterans have. “The goal is to show the sweeping, yet elusive support system that exists if individuals have the agency to be heard.”
