Commanding general of Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region, U.S. Army Military District of Washington, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, left, presents Master Sgt. Cedric King a keepsake book about Arlington National Cemetery to thank him fo...
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. (Jan. 14, 2015) -- Double-amputee Master Sgt. Cedric King had to choose after his injury: he could let the injury define him, or he could set out on a new course to conquer these new challenges.
King, who lost both legs and suffered severe damage of his arm in an improvised explosive device blast in Afghanistan in 2012, chose the latter.
The master sergeant was the featured speaker here Tuesday at a professional development and resiliency training forum hosted by the Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region, U.S. Army Military District of Washington.
CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE
King, who is still on active duty, said he had two questions after his injury: Why did it happen? When will get it better?
"Those answers, they never come. Those answers never are really there," he said, speaking to more than 500 people, most of them Soldiers. "The journey has to teach you the answers to those two questions."
A situation only gets better when you make up your mind to make it better, he said. When you focus on the positive, the positive in your life magnifies, he added.
"I still have my eyesight. I still have people around me who love me. I still got the chance at living a wonderful life. I still got a chance at helping other people," King said.
When you focus on the problems and challenges in your life, your problems and challenges magnify, he said.
King has served nearly 20 years in the Army, including a decade as an Army Ranger. He competed in the Best Ranger competition multiple times. He did a tour in Iraq, and was on his second tour in Afghanistan at the time of his injury.
He said for months after he was injured, he would "complain about the two legs that I lost."
During a moment he was alone at the hospital and feeling down, he opened a care package and found a pack of unsharpened pencils.
Then it hit him; a pencil is useless unless it is sharpened, which he compared to going through adversity.
After a period of adversity, the pencil emerges sharp, extremely useful and able to complete the mission. He was the pencil; the blast happened for a reason, for a greater purpose, he said.
Then slowly things began to change in his life, King explained.
"I began to find little things to appreciate," he said. "That's hard to do if you're missing a pair of legs, but if you look at the way things happen, the pendulum swung that way so far to where I was complaining about everything."
If the pendulum could swing far into the negative, then it could also swing "toward the good, toward the positive," he said.
His wife wanted her loving husband back; his children just wanted their father back, he said. "Instead of reaching up on the shelf that I could not reach to grab the salt shaker that I wanted, then I just reached up the shelf that I could," King said.
The small things turned to bigger things.
He told the crowd how he was determined to learn how to swim again, even refusing to get out of the pool when a lifeguard demanded he leave, in fear he would drown. He persevered, despite the doubts by the lifeguard and doubts in his own mind, and he learned, he said.
He didn't stop there: he has since completed various road races and competitions, including the Army Ten-Miler, Boston Marathon, and Ironman competition. He also does various public speaking engagements. King, who is with Company B, Warrior Transition Unit, Walter Reed
Bethesda National Medical Center, said he wants to write a book about his life.
RESILIENCE, STRENGTH
"It was like a bad dream," King recalled about waking up at Walter Reed eight days after his injury.
His wife had to break the news to him that both his legs had to be amputated while he was in a medically induced coma, and that his arm was severely damaged.
"That's news that you can't even fathom," he said.
"I knew I had to make a decision on whether I was going to allow that adversity to own me for the rest of my life or whether I was going to make something out of this pain," he said.
King said he absolutely would want his legs back if he could. However, he added that he would never want to return the perspective and the outlook he has now on life.
His faith, and his wife and two daughters, helped him emerge stronger and sharper, like the pencil. While he lost his legs, he would never lose his spirit and strength, he said.
STRENGTH FROM WITHIN
Command Sgt. Maj. David O. Turnbull, command sergeant major of Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region, U.S. Army Military District of Washington, recalls visiting King in the hospital.
"It was the same Cedric I knew as a young team leader," Turnbull said. "He was a little banged up, a little bruised up, but his attitude, his smile, the gleam in his eyes was still there."
Pausing with emotion, Turnbull said, "He told me that day he was going to get through this. With no doubt in his mind he said 'I'm going to get through this. I got this.'"
Turnbull noted how King just returned from Florida, where he ran a 5K, 10K, a half-marathon, and a marathon. "Because everybody knows -- why do one race when you can do four over a weekend," Turnbull said.
In a video played at the event, First Lady Michelle Obama said she met King at the White House last year and saw his "courageous spirit first-hand."
King "embodies the incredible resilience and strength of all of our wounded warriors," she said.
"We owe it to these heroes to show just a tiny fraction of their commitment in service to this country with service of our own," she said.
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