Army and Navy veteran Aaron Hale shares his story about becoming the first blind and deaf person to finish the “world’s toughest footrace” in this week’s episode of The American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
In 1999, Hale began his 14 years of service to “gain a work ethic” after a failed attempt at college. He joined the Navy as a cook for a three-star admiral. Then “somehow along the way became an Army EOD, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician. I fell in love with service and gained those external values: leadership, teamwork, love of service and all of those.”
Hale was on his second deployment in Afghanistan, west of Kandahar, in 2011 when an IED blast ended his operational career and left him blind. The device was a secondary one, near where Hale was working to defuse the primary one.
“The blast took both of my eyes, cracked my skull; I was leaking spinal fluid from my nose and put me into blindness for the rest of my life,” he said.
Thanks to support from his wife and other family members, he decided to “become the best blind guy I could be.”
As he was getting used to his new normal, a serious bout with bacterial meningitis “seriously tried to kill me.” After four days of heavy doses of antibiotics, a doctor told him that the bacteria was not only trying to kill him but take his hearing, too.
“I was not only to be 100% blind, I was going to be 100% deaf.”
He uses a cochlear implant, connected via BlueTooth to his phone, which allows him to listen to podcasts, audio books or music. That has allowed him to start a fudge company with his wife; host his own podcast, Point of Impact, which aims to share the habit changes and mindset shifts that Hale used to overcome his injuries; and push his limits as a runner, including finishing the Badwater 135.
The Badwater 135 is a 135-mile race that starts at 282 feet below sea level in the Badwater Basin area of Death Valley and ends at an elevation of 8,360 feet at Whitney Portal, the trailhead to Mount Whitney. It takes place each year in July when temperatures can reach 130 degrees.
“The thing about ultra marathons, is it’s all mental,” he says. “Once you have the physical conditioning, nutrition, pace and all of that down, then it’s all about what’s going on inside your mind. It’s the voice that says, ‘It’s too hard. You should quit. It’s too painful. That’s why I do it. If I can continue to live the best life I can, maybe I can inspire others to do the same.”
Additionally, co-hosts Ashley Gutermuth and Amy Forsythe also discuss:
• In the spirit of Halloween, a story about a famous author of horror novels who attended West Point.
• A Marine competing in the national mullet championship.
• How The American Legion is now doing even more to address the issue of preventing veteran suicide.
Check out this week’s episode, which is among more than 200 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.
- Tango Alpha Lima