Injured in 2024 chopper crash, soldier honored at Black Rifle Coffee Co.
A program linking physically challenged service members and first responders with better mobility is helping give Jake Pratt his life back.
Pratt, a sergeant in the New York Guard and a paraplegic, is getting a donated, state-of-the-art wheelchair after befriending Jason Tabansky, the U.S. Paralympic gold medalist who lives in Boerne.
Tabansky put Pratt in touch with Wheelchairs for Warriors, an organization in its 10th year providing “custom, enhanced mobility wheelchairs to veterans and first responders injured or wounded in the line of duty,” according to an online statement.
A ceremony Wednesday at veteran- founded Black Rifle Co. included a taking photos and measurements to help Pratt make the transition to the $12,000 conveyance.
“He’s going to be a lot more comfortable in the new chair,” said Crystal Lee Laramore, founder and director of Wheelchairs for Warriors. “We’re going to change the width of the custom chair to be slightly wider. We’re also going to lower the seat back so he has more upper body control.”
The nonprofit will work with Pratt, who can choose the wheels, the caster, the cushions and thousands of other specifications, added Laramore, who was on hand at the event.
Pratt said he doesn’t remember all the details of the March 8, 2024, helicopter crash on the Texas border that broke “just about every bone in my body” and killed three other New York Guardsmen.
Pratt, 30, and his companions were flying aerial reconnaissance as part of an effort to assist U.S. Border patrol agents when a shift in the wind ended their flight.
“The (UH-72 Lakota) isn’t a Black Hawk, this didn’t have that kind of power,” Pratt said. “It affected our tail ... so we started to spin. … That’s the last thing I remember, is the spin. I remembered getting tossed to the side, then I blacked out after that.”
The soldier was placed in an induced coma for a week.
“The first thing I remember
is waking up and telling my dad, ‘I can’t feel my legs,’” he said.
Everybody around him already knew what was going on, he said.
“There’s no playbook for this kind of thing; nobody knows how to do it,” he added.
His injuries were severe: “I broke my tibia/fibula, both legs, both ankles all my ribs, my sternum, collarbone, fractured my elbows; I have three fusions in my neck, four or five in my thoracic sections and three in my lumbar.”
Initially considered a quadriplegic, Pratt was able to regain upper-body strength after his second spinal surgery.
“It took months for me just to be able to move my hands, things like that,” he said.
Pratt crossed paths one day with Tabansky and complained about the fit of his wheelchair.
Tabansky told him, “I know somebody ...”
That somebody was Tina Phelipot, business development director for Wheelchairs for Warriors, “When a veteran applies on our website, I do the intake interview to see if they qualify and if we can serve them,” Phelipot said. “Last year we served 38 veterans. We provide both daily living and adaptive sports chairs. They are custom- fit chairs that allow our veterans mobility and independence.”
Black Rifle Coffee Co. owner Patti Mainz said Wheelchairs For Warriors chose her business for the gathering this past week to help Pratt after Tabansky “fell in love with the place” when Boerne threw a Welcome Home celebration to honor after his gold-medal- winning performance.
“The first thing I remember is waking up and telling my dad, ‘I can’t feel my legs.’”
— Jake Pratt
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