Veterans take part in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games’ Motor Rally at the World War II Museum in New Orleans
World War II history came to life for veteran wheelchair athletes competing in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games’ (NVWG) motor rally (trivia) event Monday.
Athletes spent the morning touring the National WWII Museum in New Orleans while answering 10 trivia questions about Louisiana and drawing five playing cards to try to get the best poker hand.
For Marine Corps veteran and Paralyzed Veterans of America Southeastern Chapter member Rickie Rapp Jr., it was a family affair. The 28-year-old Mooresville, N.C., resident, who served from 2014 to 2018 and sustained a level C6 complete spinal-cord injury in June 2023, was joined by his sister and NVWG volunteer Seanti Travis and 7-year-old nephew, Justin.
“Honestly, the support that I have really pushed me to get up and stay active and really I just needed to maintain my physicality to keep my mental state going,” Rapp says. “That was the main thing, just to keep my mind right. And having the push from my family, especially my big sister and my mom. I’ve always been an active guy. I was actually a wrestler in high school and I was really big into the martial arts program in the Marine Corps. So that’s the main reason, keeping a healthy lifestyle to keep up with my nephew.”
He says he wanted to compete in the motor rally because he loves the museum, trivia and World War II history and artifacts. He had visited the museum several times before, but he still learned something new — that the late professional baseball player Jackie Robinson served in the Army’s 761st Tank Battalion.
“It brings joy to my heart just to know that I was one of the few that was able to have the pride and capacity to join these brave men and women in America’s fight and battle for peace,” Rapp says. “Just knowing that this is what we fought for, that’s amazing. It definitely gives you goosebumps going through here.”
He says the last question about who Louisiana was named after (France’s King Louis XIV) was the toughest.
“I thought the questions were going to be more about World War II subjects, even like observations, like if they set something up to psych us out, like a golden egg to look for,” Rapp says. “But it was nothing like that. I was definitely surprised by the different types of questions. I did read the booklet [they gave us], maybe the first two pages.”
This is Rapp’s first year competing in the Games. He was born in New Orleans and jumped at the chance for a homecoming and opportunity for camaraderie. He also competed in air rifle, table tennis, field events and the obstacle course known as “slalom.”
Rapp says the field events were his favorite, and he felt like he did well in the club throw. But he especially like hearing the crowd cheer for him.
“The moment I pulled up and just the greeting of all the veterans and the staff,” Rapp says. “I haven’t had a single negative thought or someone to pass me without a smile. Actually during the field events, I had an older Marine come up and kind of give me some tips on how he throws the club with him being a quad similar to me. You know with the audience, because I was the last one and everybody watching, it kind of got pretty quiet and everybody was just observing the older generational Marine helping the younger. That’s definitely what I like the most and probably what I’m looking forward to in the years to come.”
He says he’d like to eventually get into wheelchair rugby. Overall, competing in the Games has taught him never to hesitate to ask for advice.
“I definitely caught a glimpse of holding on to what’s dear to you,” Rapp says. “A lot of these older generational veterans, they have just a different sense of pride than this younger generation.”
Gold For Team Endymion
In the NVWG power soccer championship Monday night, Team Endymion didn’t live up to its Greek mythological namesake — a youth who spent much of his life in perpetual sleep.
The team was awake, firing off a 3-2 win against Team Muses in the gold-medal game inside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
Marine Corps veteran and PVA Mid-Atlantic Chapter member Amy McKee, who scored two of the team’s three goals, says the team’s communication is what helped them earn the win.
“I think I did an OK job. I know I can play better. It just happens,” says the 38-year-old Chesapeake, Va., resident, who served from 2004 to 2017 and sustained a level T4 SCI in a 2016 motorcycle accident. “As a team, we did really well. We were talking to each other, moving the ball.”
She says their strategy was to get ahead and then pull back and let all the players have a good time.
“Winning’s great, but it’s not everything,” says McKee, who served from 2004 to 2017 and sustained a level T4 SCI in a 2016 motorcycle accident. “I’d rather have people play the sport and have fun than win.”
But what made the game even better for McKee was playing on the same team as Navy veteran Happy Barton, who was McKee’s mentor when she began playing power soccer at the NVWG in 2018.
“She got to watch me grow up in the sport,” says McKee, who joined Virginia’s Tidewater Piranhas power soccer team three years ago.
Overall, McKee says she enjoys just playing and having fun at the NVWG.
“The wheelchair games is bringing all the branches together and just camaraderie,” she says. “It’s a brotherhood, a sisterhood. We’re here for each other no matter what.”
Softball All-Stars
By: John Groth
In the first NVWG All-Star Wheelchair Softball game in history, the 2024 NVWG All-Star team made a statement.
They shut out the NVWG All-Star Alumni team thanks to an early first-inning scoring punch and then some stellar pitching and defense.
NVWG 2024 All-Stars’ Nakia Merritte hit an RBI first-inning double, Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Army veteran Gene Calantoc had a single and a walk, and pitcher and Navy veteran Joe Wittcamp had an RBI single and didn’t allow a run in a 4-0 victory Monday night over the NWVG All-Star Alumni Team at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
An Army and Iraq War veteran and San Antonio resident, Merritte served from 1999 to 2015 as an infantryman. But in 2007, he sustained multiple injuries, including a bulged spinal cord, left foot being fused at his ankle and post-traumatic stress disorder, after an improvised explosive device went off during a tour in Iraq.
He only found out that’d he made the 2024 All-Star team after finishing a wheelchair basketball game, less than three hours before the All-Star wheelchair softball game.
“I was shocked. I’m glad I got picked. I enjoyed it,” says Merritte, who played wheelchair softball for the first time at the Games. “What was fun about it, you know, playing with some of my basketball players, teammates. Gene, he got MVP. Me and him are from the same chapter, San Antonio. And we held the all-star team from last year to zero, so that was fun.”
Tied 0-0 with one out in the bottom of the first inning, Wittcamp singled home a run, and then Merritte added an RBI double and Air Force veteran Ryan Lindstrom added an RBI groundout to give the 2024 team a 3-0 advantage. Army veteran Terrence Green wheeled home on an error in the bottom of the sixth to finish off the scoring.
Wittcamp pitched all seven innings, allowing just four hits and recording one strikeout.
NVWG Alumni player and Army veteran Jimmy Green had two hits, and Air Force/National Guard veteran Robert York and Navy veteran Jackie Jones had one each.
