“Courage is taking one more step in the face of adversity. Blaze a trail for others to follow.”                                                           Bob Wieland

 1983 – Roswell, New Mexico: The thermometer read 105 degrees as Frosty Woolridge, who was biking across America, pedaled down the desert road. Up ahead, he saw a lone figure walking along the left side. Frosty wondered why someone was walking along this lonely stretch of road as hot as it was. And it looked like he had a dog with him.

A minute later, Frosty realized it wasn’t a dog. For a moment, he doubted what he saw. It was another man, walking on his hands. Then Frosty realized the man had no legs. Amazed, he stopped his bike and let it drop. He walked across the road to the legless man, who looked up at Frosty and said, “How are you doing? I’m Bob Wieland.” Then he told Frosty his story.

Bob Wieland was a three-sport athlete in high school and an outstanding baseball player at the University of Wisconsin – Lacrosse. He was in the process of signing a baseball contract with the Philadelphia Phillies when he was drafted into the Army during the peak of the Vietnam War. Instead of pursuing his dream of playing in the big leagues, Bob became an army medic.

In June 1969, during a Viet Cong ambush on his unit, Bob stepped on an unexploded 82mm mortar shell while rushing to save an injured soldier. Both his legs were blown off at his thighs. Bob arrived at a field hospital zipped in a body bag labeled ‘Dead on Arrival.’ Fortunately for him, a medic saw movement in the bag and checked for a pulse.

On June 14, 1969, Bob wrote a letter to his parents. “Dear Mom and Dad, I’m in a field hospital. The people here are taking good care of me. P.S. I think I lost my legs.” Bob would later account, “My legs went one way, my life another.”

He left Wisconsin at 6’ 1” tall, 205 pounds and returned home 3’ 0” and 87 pounds with a new label, double amputee. Determined not to be immobilized by his injury, he started an aggressive weightlifting program the day he was released from the hospital. Bob moved to California to become a powerlifter, and he enrolled at Cal State University in Los Angeles to study physical education.

In 1977, lifting in the 120-pound division, Bob broke the world powerlifting record with a lift of 320 pounds, not against disabled competitors, but able-bodied lifters. He went on to break the world bench press record four times. The Green Bay Packers were so impressed that they hired Bob as a strength coach.

At the time Bob encountered Frosty Woolridge, he had been walking on his hands for 19 months and completed 932 miles in his walk across America. He left Anaheim, California, on September 8, 1982, to walk to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He walked to honor the 58,272 military personnel who died in the jungles of Southeast Asia and to raise money for veteran’s causes. By the time he reached the California line, his well-wishers and cheerleaders were gone. Bob was left with one supporter, a pickup truck with a camper shell, and about 2,700 miles to go.

On May 14, 1986, three years, eight months, and six days after he began his cross-country journey, Bob Wieland walked the last emotional mile to the Vietnam war memorial with family and friends. He stopped at position 22 West, Line 47, at the name of Jerome Luvino, the army friend he was trying to save when he lost his legs. Bob’s walk covered 2,784 miles and raised $350,000 for charity.

Bob has walked the New York, Los Angeles, and Marine Corps Marathons and is the only double amputee to complete the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii. Twice he has completed a 6,200-mile bike ride across the country and back. The National Football League Players Association and the Jim Thorpe Foundation have honored Bob as “the most courageous man in America.”

Today, at age 78, Bob Wieland has retired from marathons and now devotes himself to raising money for Vietnam veterans’ causes through his foundation. A devoted Christian, he has participated in the Celebrate America Tour and spoken in all 50 states at churches, conventions, corporate meetings, high schools, and universities.