FOX Sports sat down with U.S. Navy Veteran Max Rohn to share his story and work with nonprofit organization partner Angel City Sports to help create adaptive sports opportunities for anyone with a physical disability or visual impairment. Recognizing his commitment to the adaptive sports community, Angel City Sports honored Rohn at its recent Courage Weekend event for veterans and first responders.
Rohn was severely injured serving as a corpsman in Fallujah, Iraq, resulting in multiple years of limb salvage and the eventual amputation of his right leg below the knee. Despite his injuries, he has pursued his passion for sports and serves as an inspiration for future generations of adaptive athletes – all while training to compete for Team USA in men’s discus.
Rohn’s story aired nationally during the FOX NFL SUNDAY Veterans Day show on Sunday, November 10 as part of the company’s longstanding support of Angel City Sports and commitment to creating and advancing fighting chances for our nation’s military heroes. The company’s time-honored tradition of anchoring FOX NFL SUNDAY from a military installation on Veterans Day weekend continued this year when the show was hosted from Naval Base San Diego, the world’s second largest surface ship naval base.
The interview was conducted in Max’s new home that was generously provided to him by Homes for Our Troops, a national nonprofit which builds and donates custom homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans.
FOX Sports: Tell us about your service in the military.
Max: I joined the Navy because I knew I could help. I was an EMT in high school. One of my instructors told me that if I really wanted to know medicine, that I should go to the front lines. I initially wanted to join the Army because they had a bonus, and my mom said absolutely not. So, then I kind of tricked her – told her I was joining the Navy because she didn’t know that I could go with the Marines and end up in the same spot.
My rate in the Navy was Hospital Corpsman, 3rd Class Petty Officer, or HM3 – stationed out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina with the 2nd Marines. On my deployment I was attached to a police transition team and my role was to be the Corpsman attached to a squad size element, normally about 12 Marines, and provide medical coverage. While I was in Iraq, I supported my team as well as the Iraqi police, and I also took care of the detainees or the people that we apprehended doing all of our work.
FOX Sports: What advice do you have for veterans that are in the midst of their transition to civilian life?
Max: You need to go out there, you need to ask for help – everyone’s going to tell you that. My message is that you also have to accept the help. What that means is that you have to break down your pride, and you have to be willing to accept things that you can’t possibly know. You have this problem, and you think that you can solve it. If that were true, you wouldn’t have the problem anymore. So, what you have to do is get outside your comfort zone. Experience some things that you’re not comfortable with because it’s only when we’re not comfortable that we actually grow. This is the success that comes through struggle. You have to struggle a little bit before you can actually succeed.
So, if that means going to the VA and getting the help you need, even though you really don’t want to, this is the step that everyone needs to recognize. But the help doesn’t need to come from the VA. It can come from the community around you. What I do with Angel City Sports is that we have built this community up so that when you ask for help, we have the resources to provide it. You don’t have to struggle alone. There’s an entire community out here that’s willing to help. You just have to be accepting of the help.
FOX Sports: Describe the impact that Angel City Sports has on veterans with service-connected injuries and the importance of their programming for this community.
Max: This community is very odd in so far as its visibility. You don’t really know about disabled sports until you’re disabled. Then, when you’re disabled, you just expect that there’s this huge infrastructure and programs built for you to participate – and that is not really the case. There are some bright spots in the country – one of the best organizations is Angel City Sports. They take athletes from introductory levels all the way to the Paralympic level and give you all the tools that you need to be successful in the sport, and that includes surrounding you with people that can help you along the way. If you shrink it all the way down – at the heart of this – sports just teach you how to set up a routine and make your world make sense again. You just went through this horrible endeavor, either trauma, illness, etc… and your life is just chaos and you’re trying to make sense of it. The best way to do it is to get out into the world and start moving again. And that’s what sports does.
