Row three hours, relaxation three hours. Row three hours, relaxation three hours.
That’s the present each day routine of Robert Hamilton Owens, a 71-year-old Air Pressure veteran who, alongside a crew of 11 others, is spending 40 days rowing roughly 3,500 miles throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
Owens and his crew, which embrace a policewoman from Norway and an ex-British Army soldier, departed from the Canary Islands on Dec. 4 and are destined for the island of Antigua within the Caribbean. The problem, formally coined the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Problem — though Owens and his workforce are usually not competing within the official competitors — will take a look at the group’s capacity to work as a workforce, to climate the highs and lows of transiting the Atlantic in a rowboat, and to push themselves past what have been as soon as their psychological and bodily limits.
For Owens, it’s one a part of what he hopes to do stop veteran suicide.
Pararescue
Earlier than Owens grew to become a profession motivational speaker and avid Ironman competitor, he spent his youth in Orange County, California, along with his adopted household. Nobody would have guessed again then what he would later be bodily able to. He was, in spite of everything, thought of “particular wants” on account of a bodily incapacity that put him in corrective leg braces into his tween years.
However whereas Owens might have struggled to play kickball along with his classmates, he was an ace within the water, finally coaching with famed U.S. Olympic swim coach Jon Urbanchek in Anaheim. When he wasn’t swimming or lifeguarding, Owens spent his time racing outrigger canoes from Lengthy Seaside to Catalina with the Dana Level Outrigger Membership.
At 18, Vietnam was raging, however Owens, by his personal admission, averted the draft by guaranteeing the Army would discover him medically unqualified to serve in Vietnam. He had no want to go to battle, he mentioned, particularly after seeing brothers and associates come residence in containers.
“I made positive that I had a water polo harm in my elbow,” Owens mentioned. “I smashed it right into a wall for a very long time.”
Two years later, nonetheless, Owens had a change of coronary heart. When he was approached to enter Air Pressure particular forces, he mentioned sure, purposely neglecting to inform the Air Pressure that the Army had discovered him disabled.
The coaching can be grueling, however as a longtime lifeguard with sea patrol expertise, the thought of going into the army in a lifesaving capability was way more interesting to Owens than doubtlessly having to take lives. He managed to make it by the six-month coaching course and earned his place as an Air Pressure pararescueman.
It was an ideal match for Owens, who loved the problem of pushing his physique and thoughts to the restrict in among the most excessive circumstances, like when he rescued climbers caught on Alaska’s Mount Denali, the best mountain in North America.
Simply into his second tour, nonetheless, Owens determined it was time for a change and opted to depart the Air Pressure. The department was “making finances cuts,” he mentioned, and his sights have been turning towards the G.I. Invoice and faculty.
New Challenges
Out of the army, Owens centered on different bodily feats, endeavor intense assessments such because the World Marathon Problem, by which contributors full seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.
Owens additionally tapped into his expertise in turning into a motivational speaker who discusses management and overcoming bodily and psychological obstacles, having completed so with organizations such because the Nationwide Soccer League’s New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens, the Philippines’ Joint Chiefs of Workers and the South African Parliament.
Owens was already trying to sort out the rowing problem when his good good friend and fellow veteran, Mark Crampton, handed away this previous spring. The lack of Crampton, a retired Navy SEAL who took his personal life in April 2022, proved to be one crushing loss too many for Owens, who categorized his expertise with suicide as “vital.”
“That’s once I mentioned, ‘I’m taking Mark with me’,” he mentioned of his cause for doing the journey. So, whereas funding for the expedition is being spearheaded by the Braveness Basis, a company that helps veterans with post-traumatic stress dysfunction transition again into the civilian world, the journey can also be meant to lift consciousness and funds to combat veteran suicide.
That battle instills Owens with the psychological fortitude to get by any problem, he mentioned. Final 12 months, he was set to take part within the Florida Ironman race. However due to an earlier battle with COVID, Owens’ lungs have been weaker than typical. He was struggling to swim and breathe, so he made the choice to tug out of the race. After turning to a pulmonologist for assist, he now feels again within the recreation.
“There’s one thing about psychological resiliency that comes with time, and there’s one thing about confidence that you understand how to regulate underneath ache,” Owens mentioned. “And in case you practice with ache, you make it your good friend. That friendship by no means leaves you.”
To organize for the journey, Owens mentioned he has continued collaborating in Ironman competitions and not too long ago accomplished a half-Ironman in October. The previous months have been spent rowing, doing Pilates and specializing in workouts that strengthen his decrease again, glutes, hamstrings and quads.
Surprisingly, Owens has solely educated along with his workforce as soon as, throughout a visit to Scotland earlier this 12 months, once they spent seven days within the North Sea rowing collectively. Security courses have been additionally given, throughout which era Owens realized how you can use particular medical kits the crew would have entry to on board.
The crew then realized concerning the navigation system on the vessel, a self-righting Rannoch that ought to re-orient itself within the occasion it flips. There are two cabins on the back and front of the boat, Owens mentioned, and people are air-locked to guard the crew in case of actually extreme climate. Whereas water is among the gadgets packed onto the small boat, the vessel additionally comes with a water-maker that desalinizes ocean water, a course of helped by photo voltaic panels positioned on the vessel’s topside. These additionally energy telephones and the rest that requires a plug.
Over the virtually two-month interval, Owens and his crew will likely be eating on freeze-dried meals, just like these eaten by astronauts or hikers taking up the Appalachian Path.
Regardless of admitting he’s nervous for the expedition, Owens stays steadfast in his willpower to finish the problem — and, to honor Mark.
“When Mark Crampton did what he did, it was simply too shut,” he mentioned. “He didn’t discuss to us. He didn’t share and open up concerning the snakes in his head. I simply thought, ‘Of all of the folks, not Mark.’”
Right now, Owens believes there’s an opportunity he may have helped Mark. That, he mentioned, sticks with him.
The Mark Crampton Memorial Trans-Atlantic Row will assist elevate consciousness for veterans who die by suicide. It’s going to additionally assist elevate funds for personal remedy for veterans battling present Veteran Affairs packages, Owens mentioned. Not solely will the veterans concerned get skilled assist, however they may also be capable to partake in group rowing classes the place they’ll work by psychological obstacles whereas spending time with a workforce of fellow veterans.
“Sturdy individuals are not afraid to ask for assist,” Owens mentioned. That’s precisely what he’s hoping this journey can present.
Rachel is a Marine Corps veteran and a grasp’s candidate at New York College’s Enterprise & Financial Reporting program.
