Giving chances: Indianapolis Colts spokesman
and wounded vet shares story
LOGANSPORT — Josh Bleill stood in front of a group of about 40 business people Wednesday morning, with a walking cane in one hand. Dressed in shorts, it was easy to see the young man had two prosthetic legs.
Bleill broke the ice with a joke.
“I’m the (Indianapolis) Colts’ community spokesperson, but they say I could be quarterback next week. I couldn’t do any worse,” he said. “It has been a bad year, but it is a wonderful organization.”
The Indianapolis Colts hired the Iraq War veteran last year after he spent 22 months recovering from injuries sustained while serving overseas, not the least of which was the loss of both legs.
On Wednesday, Bleill told his story during the Cass County Business Leadership Network’s anniversary celebration. The organization is a business-to-business resource network working to promote the hiring of people with disabilities.
Jackie Cody, county network liaison, said the organization wanted to bring someone special to speak at the event.
“We had a round-table discussion, and we were looking for someone who could talk the talk and walk the walk,” she said. “We wanted someone who could speak from their own personal experience. I can say having a job is important, but when you hear what having a job means to them, it has more meaning.”
Bleill was able to do just that.
After the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2011, Bleill said, the tragedy weighed heavy on him.
He had watched many people lose their lives. But he was also impressed by those firemen, police officers and other emergency personnel who gave their lives.
So he joined the U.S. Marines in 2003.
The following year, at the age of 27, Bleill went to boot camp. After 13 weeks, he became a Marine.
He eventually went back home to his job at Conseco Fieldhouse and joined a reserve unit in Terre Haute.
In January 2006, he received a phone call from his sergeant.
“It was the phone call I knew I would eventually receive, that I was activated for war, but still, those words sent chills down me,” he told the audience Wednesday.
That September, he was sent to Iraq to support the local police and “to get the bad guys,” Bleill said.
His experience in Iraq was difficult, he recalled. He saw bombs blowing up every day.
Then came Oct. 15, 2006. Bleill and several other Marines were out chasing down vehicles for weapons and targets.
“We didn’t find much that morning,” he said. “We saw a vehicle we wanted to chase. We went to make a U-turn at the median. When we struck the median, that’s when the bomb exploded.”
Two of his fellow soldiers were killed.
Bleill wasn’t, but the explosion had ripped through his body. He lost both legs below the knee and had his pelvis bone snapped in half.
Doctors put 27 pins in his hip and wired his jaw shut.
He was in a comma for five days, finally waking up in a hospital bed in Germany.
“I was scared, upset and lonely,” he said. “At 29 years old, I was afraid to look in the mirror at myself. I was scared to go out into public. I was afraid people would stare.”
Eventually, his sergeant approached him with an opportunity he couldn’t refuse — a trip to see the Colts and Chicago Bears play in the Super Bowl.
It was the first time he left the hospital.
While in Indianapolis, Bleill spoke with Colts owner Jim Irsay, who offered him a job.
He also told the story of learning to walk again. The first day, he sat in his wheelchair at the parallel bars waiting for his prosthetic legs.
He found out the first pair of legs made him only 4 feet tall. The weight was also too heavy for him, and he couldn’t pick the legs up.
Feeling angry, Bleill went back to his hotel room and read letters of support he received from people he didn’t even know. Those letters encouraged him to keep trying.
“After working hard for 10 months, they found an infection and had to amputate again,” Bleill said. “I was in my wheelchair for three months and learned to walk again for the third time in my life.”
Once he returned home, he interviewed with the Colts and found out the job focused on public speaking, which he hated. He decided to take the job and practice in front of his wife’s third-grade students.
He gave 150 speeches last year and 250 speeches so far this year.
“This is not about telling the Josh Bleill story,” he said. “A lot of other people with disabilities can do a job, too. ... It’s amazing, wherever you go, the most things you talk about are family and jobs. That job helps support the family.”
Bleill said he’s where he is at today because someone believed in him and took a chance with him.
“People with disabilities have the same potential as everyone else,”
he said. “When businesses are going to select someone to hire, I hope they consider everyone equally. Sometimes a disability is a strength because they have to overcome it.”
• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com.
As reported by: Pharos-Tribune P.O. Box 210 Logansport, IN 46947
article by: Denise Massie December 15, 2011
# http://pharostribune.com/local/x161777407/Giving-chances-Colts-spokesman-and-wounded-vet-shares-story
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