Eagles Summit Ranch offers lift to America's wounded warriors

By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 5, 2008 at 12:15 a.m.

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Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

"When I can lay out and stretch a little bit, it helps take the pain out of my back and hips and legs," Toby Bethel said outside Dave Roever's cabin. "It just takes the pain out for a couple minutes." Bethel, a former police officer in Florence, was shot eight times with an AK-47 on Sept. 28, 2001.

Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Dave Roever is shown in Vietnam before his injury. He says he came home blind, deaf and depressed.

Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Toby Bethel takes his new electric wheel chair out for its first test drive with his new friends and supporters at Eagle Summit Ranch. "Having something like that, it's gonna be wonderful because it's going to help me through my day," Bethel said.

Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Vietnam veteran Dave Roever, center, puts his hand on the bottom, serving as a foundation of success to Desert Storm veteran Peter Serrano, 36, and Iraqi Freedom veteran Josh Callaway, 22, as they start the Joshua Tree Foundation at Roever's Eagles Summit Ranch.

Photo by Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Steven Husong, left, who broke his back in Afghanistan, motivates former police officer Toby Bethel.

Josh Callaway, who served with the Army in Iraq, said, "I have post traumatic stress disorder, where all these things happen over there, and your stress level is through the roof."

The four men sit in a mountain lodge strumming their guitars. The big man among them stops playing and gestures to the kid with the green mohawk and a lot of baggage from a bloody tour in Iraq.

He's clearly pleased by what he sees.

"Josh has really pulled out of his funk in the last two weeks," Dave Roever says. "He said, 'Bring on the girls!' "

Translation: Bring on life.

Roever knows it's a start.

At an age when many are retiring, the 61-year-old Roever - who has spent 40 years as a Christian preacher and motivational speaker - is starting a new venture to help America's wounded warriors.

From his sprawling, 235-acre Eagles Summit Ranch, Roever offers a unique support system for members of the military - police and firefighters, too - who have sacrificed their bodies, and sometimes their minds, in service to their country.

Here, they learn confidence building and public speaking, so they can inspire others with their stories.

"You have the right, through your experience, to change the world," Roever likes to tell them.

They can earn college credits, too, led by Roever's son, Matthew, the ranch's resident professor. They get advice on launching nonprofits. The ranch is also developing a relationship with a major corporation interested in hiring disabled veterans.

Roever (pronounced Reever) is a drawlin' Texan and preacher's kid who started his own career as a public speaker when he was 17. But the real course of his future was set when he came home from Vietnam.

His patched face and stiff handshake came from the blast of a long-ago grenade.

"When I saw myself in the mirror, I tried to take my life by pulling my feeding tubes out," he recalls. "I really didn't want to die, but I was so scared."

Instead, Roever decided to get on with his dream. And last year, on the anniversary of 9/11, the unabashed patriot opened the ranch to provide the kind of support he says was missing to most wounded veterans of Vietnam.

The $3 million ranch was built debt-free thanks to a huge network of private donors and links to major ministries. Some past members of his board came from Billy Graham's ministry.

And, after some initial worries about traffic and noise, the ranch has become a valued neighbor, says Kit Shy, chairman of the Custer County board of commissioners.

Shy says the county, home to a growing number of retired veterans, has embraced the ranch's mission: "Through Dave, our community has been able to make a contribution to disabled warriors who are coming home. We feel we're having kind of a national effect by making Dave successful."

Roever measures success in warrior terms.

"I've got a dream for guys who got a dream," he says. "It's bad enough to let the enemy get a shot at ya - but don't you finish doing to yourself what they couldn't do!"

'I'm looking for hope'

"Hey! Want to shave your head?" Steven Husong, 43, teases a visitor.

The gung-ho military recruiter and an inveterate kidder is in a downstairs washroom, renewing the sheen on his bald head.

Husong is one of five guys attending this two-week session, which quickly turns wounded strangers into brothers. Husong got hooked on painkillers after breaking his back in Afghanistan and now wants to set his life in a new direction: "I decided I'm gonna man-up and fix things."

Filled with guys' banter and guitar music, the stylishly rustic lodge feels like a cross between a well-run fraternity house and a top-end resort. There's fine leather furniture and cozy bedrooms (all donated), and animal trophies ("Dave hunts 'em, and he eats 'em," chuckles his wife, Brenda).

The day is filled with classes, activities like horseback riding, and dinners out, compliments of admiring local restaurateurs.

Roever handpicks the wounded warriors from his own visits to hospitals, churches and speaking engagements, and from applications. Guests pay nothing for their stay.

When choosing his warrior- guests, "I'm looking for hope and an ability to express themselves, or an overwhelming desire to. You know, there's a lot of things you can do with a dream."

He avoids veterans "who feel all resentment and bitterness, and go off on their country - I don't have time for that."

Patriotism marks the group. Douglas Szczepanski, 24, who had his face ripped open by a car bomb in Baghdad, says, "I always wanted to embody the Army's core values," and he still does.

Josh Calloway, 22, the young man with the mohawk, had a breakdown in Iraq after watching his team die in a bloodbath. Josh was brought to the ranch by Peter Serrano, 36, a Desert Storm veteran and Florida firefighter who has a startup foundation to help vets like Josh. Invoking a firefighter's motto, Serrano told the younger man, still plagued by trauma, "I'm not going to leave you behind."

Toby Bethel, a Florence police officer, was ambushed in 2001 by two gunmen with AK-47s. The award-winning cop and former weightlifter is now paralyzed.

Bethel says he was depressed before coming to Eagles Summit, "hanging around the house, doing nothing."

Roever quickly arranged to have Bethel speak of his experiences before a local crowd.

"Toby is so shy," Roever said, "but at the end of his talk, he had 200 people clapping."

Now, Bethel wants more bookings: "I just want to tell others to never, ever, ever, ever, give up."

The message is pure Roever.

In July 1969, on a river in Vietnam, the patrol gunner hauled back to throw a grenade. At that instant, a sniper shot the grenade, incinerating Roever's face. He came home blind, deaf and depressed.

"I wanted to take my life because I was so ugly," he says.

His sight and hearing came back - a direct healing from God, he believes - and his sense of humor. In the middle of explaining his old injuries, Roever pauses.

"I don't wanna scare ya, but . . . " He takes off his fake right ear and gleefully brandishes it.

"Isn't that cool?"

Spouses suffer, too

Roever and Brenda Draper were high school sweethearts.

"I asked her to marry me when she was 13, and she slapped me," Roever says with a grin.

Still a teenager when her wounded husband came home from Vietnam, Brenda steeled herself to meet a man with an unrecognizable face. First thing she did, she kissed him. And her first words, "Welcome home, Davey," set Roever on the path of healing.

Spouses suffer, too, and the ranch welcomes couples. But they get a message different from standard military support groups, Brenda says: "They always gave the wife an excuse to leave. My personal goal is to give spouses an excuse to stay - you can have a great life, kids, a family. It takes a lot of giving and taking, but marriage does anyway."

Women veterans are also welcome, but in their own two-week session.

This group is knit by male camaraderie. In the classes, Roever, like a dad, speaks about everything from staying away from computer pornography to running a nonprofit with integrity. Most of all, he talks about dreams. With impeccable timing, the 300-pound Roever pauses and looks at his rapt audience. Then, in a voice still raspy from inhaling the grenade explosion, he starts singing the old 1980s pop hit, "Hold on tight to your dreams."

The song could be an anthem for the ranch.

"If we can present to them a dream, a goal, if they can see a vision that there's life after injury, then we've succeeded," says Brenda.

She looks at her high school sweetheart. "He's still my honey."

Her wounded warrior has his comeback ready. "I ain't scarred on the inside, am I, honey?"

torkelsonj@RockyMountainNews.com

• July 5, 2008

  2:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  Thank You to someone who is giving so much back
  To the people who deserve it the most of all.
  May they continue on the road to recovery.
  May they be able to cope with with their country asked them to do.
  Goog Luck guys hope you nothing but the best in the future.

• July 5, 2008

  3:01 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  kermit writes:

  What a story! As a long-time law enforcement officer, it's heartening to see such a program that helps our broken soldiers AND our broken cops. Serving our country and wounded by our nation's enemies, or serving our community and wounded by criminals in our own communities, make for far-apart experiences. However they both share similar horrors of seeing what criminals do to the innocent, being hunted by those who want to kill them, and the impressions on the psyche that do not always go away, despite the preparations they make.

  God bless our military, God bless our cops, and God bless people like this that take care of those who take care of us!

• July 5, 2008

  5:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  tchoupitoulas writes:

  Wow...I'm speechless. This is just wonderful, wonderful stuff. I hope that they see continued success and much healing of the hearts, souls, and bodies of our heroes.

• July 5, 2008

  6:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Stevo65 writes:

  Thanks for the story,

  I had a blast, scaring your photo guy Brian. On the Quads.

  Dave is doing wonderful things. He is a vets,vets... and a mans ,man.

  If you know a vet who needs our help/ support.. Please contact the ranch. Me and the boys will do all we can. I mean it. We will find a solution.

  We must never leave a troop behind.

  God bless America...

  Steven Roy husong...Campbell,,ca

• July 5, 2008

  10:24 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  ColoNative writes:

  OUTSTANDING!!!

• July 6, 2008

  5:24 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  CustomsMP writes:

  I had a chance to hear Davey speak 17 years ago, once at my son's high school in Greenwell Springs, LA and then that night with my wife at Jimmy Swaggart's Ministry in Baton Rouge, LA. Davey is one powerful speaker and his experiences are heartbreaking. I'm also a Vietnam Veteran having served with the 592d Transportation Company, Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam from May '70 to April '71.

  All I can say is "Welcome Home, Brother" and may God grant you the strength and will to keep up your wonderful work with your ministry!

  Mike Austing
  Dennison, OH

• July 6, 2008

  2:04 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Scott writes:

  What an inspirational human being! May God bless this man.

  Scott

• July 6, 2008

  3:08 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  EDIT writes:

  Hey! You there! Asleep in front of the monitor, by which I mean Mr. or Ms. Editor: Wake up!

  It's "Eagles' Summit" or "Eagle's Summit" or "Eagle Summit".

  In no case, grammatically speaking, is it ever "Eagles Summit".

• July 8, 2008

  8:52 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  p31woman writes:

  Dear Dave - A friend just sent me a link to this site. I'm alternating between tears and laughter at seeing MORE ways that God is using you. I remember you from before you went to Viet Nam. Kermit Reneau was my pastor and I remember praying for you when you were in the hospital in SA. I remember you speaking at Camp Pearl Wheat when I was a camper. We were at SAGU at the same time in the early 70s. I especially remember an evening English class that we had together. I remember your beautiful and faithful wife loving you and standing with you. I remember your children attending and then working at camp in Kerrville. You are an awesome example of being used of the Lord in ANY situation and of seeking the Holy Spirit in finding new and wonderful ways to share the Lord with so many hurting people. Your life and your family have blessed so many people through the years. I am one of those people. I will be praying with you as this ministry CHANGES lives and HEALS so many brave men and women. My husband is a Viet Nam vet. My dad (who just went to be with the Lord) served in both WW II and Korea. And my grandfather served in WW 1 and lost a lung to mustard gas. That heritage and living in San Antonio for 47 years before I moved to Houston makes me VERY red, white and blue. God bless you. God bless America. And....America, BLESS GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!

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