Nearly 200 gather at Finley Center for 2019 Salute to Veterans Ball
Nearly 200 people gathered at the Finley Center at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex Thursday night to hear a story of challenge, triumph and change from a decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost one of his legs during the war in Iraq in 2004.
Retired Maj. Ed Pulido, an Oklahoma resident who has become a staunch advocate for veterans with disabilities and those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, shared with the crowd at the second annual Salute to Veterans Ball about the challenge he faced when he almost lost his life on the battlefield after he hit a roadside bomb that caused extensive injuries to his left knee.
An enlisted noncommissioned officer saved his life that day, but a doctor had to amputate his leg about six weeks later, ending his 19-year military career with the Army.
When he learned his leg would be amputated, it left him in a dark place with what he called the “silent wounds of war,” and “I didn’t know how to get out of it,” he said.
He suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts, but his mother told him he could sit there and grieve or get up and succeed, and he chose the latter, he said.
He found triumph when he took his first step back after the amputation and began to live adaptively, knowing that he is in a constant state of change, he said.
As he spent time in a recovery unit for amputees and people with severe burns and listened to the painful cries of burn victims as they were washed, people came and encouraged him to never quit on the precious gift of life, he said.
He learned that he needed to give back and be a difference maker, he said.
“I learned that I had to do something purposeful not for myself, but for someone else,” Pulido said. “What gives me satisfaction every day is traveling around the country and giving healing, hope, and opportunity to our nation’s heroes and other families.”
Pulido has become a mental health spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Aroga Health and Acadia Healthcare.
He is a founding member of the Warriors for Freedom Foundation, a leadership institute focused on mental, physical and wellness support for wounded veterans and their families, and senior vice president of the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides educational scholarships to families of military service members who were killed or disabled while on active duty.
The Folds of Honor Foundation started with no money in 2007 but since then has given out 25,500 scholarships totaling $130 million, Pulido said. That includes more than 900 scholarships to people in Alabama, said Mark Davis, the founder of Vettes4Vets, which organized the Salute to Veterans Ball as a fundraiser.
Vettes4Vets gives $7,500 a year to the Folds of Honor Foundation and assists numerous other veterans’ support organizations and provides direct assistance to veterans and their families in other ways.
Pulido thanked the people in attendance for gathering as a community to honor the sacrifices that veterans and active military members have made and showing an understanding the importance of their service.
“What you’re doing today is telling everybody in the country, everybody in this state and everybody in this community that you care about our nation’s heroes and their families,” he said.
His father served during the Vietnam War era, and it’s important to make sure people who served in that conflict know they have support and “to make sure we never make the same mistakes we made on them and on our new warriors coming back,” he said.
He dedicated his talk Thursday night to the young people in the room.
“You’re the future of our country,” Pulido said. “You are the beacon of light for who we are, and the reason that we fight and we die and we’re disabled is because we want to give you the freedom to have the greatest, greatest opportunity in the greatest nation of the world — the United States of America.”
Ron Bradstreet, the Alabama commander for the American Legion, talked about the bravery that members of the military community have shown. He quoted World War II Army Gen. George Patton about how bravery is not the absence of fear.
“All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened,” Patton said.
Bradstreet, who served more than 40 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours in Vietnam, said he was around a lot of warriors, “but I didn’t find too many that were jumping at the bit to go to war. I ran into a lot of them … that were prepared for war.”
He quoted Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who said, “the solider above all others prayers for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
Bradstreet focused on the fact that today’s military members are volunteers who sign up freely to serve their country.
“We choose to serve our great country so that our citizens can grow up in peace,” he said. “We don’t glorify war, … but we glorify the warrior — not just the men, but the men and women. As we sit here tonight, all across this world, young American men and women are leaning forward in the foxholes of freedom to protect us, and they do it voluntarily, and we should always honor them and never, ever, ever forget them.”
The crowd of nearly 200 people at this year’s Salute to Veterans Ball was smaller than last year, when more than 320 attended, but Vettes4Vets CEO and President David Burford estimated the event probably will have net revenues of about $20,000 after all bills are paid.
Earlier in the day, more than 270 people attended a career fair and veterans’ resource fair at the Finley Center. The career fair was aimed at both veterans and the general public, said Burford, a retired major general for the Army.
About 90 companies and organizations seeking employees were present, as well as about 40 veterans’ support organizations, Burford said.
This story was updated ta 12:26 p.m. with information about how much money was raised with the ball and an updated attendance estimate for the career fair and veterans' resource fair.