Josh Budd Spc. Josh Budd (New Britain, Connecticut) was a
shooter before he ever joined the U.S. Army Marksman- ship Unit Paralympic Section. Growing up on a farm, sure he had shot a gun before
but “nothing too serious,” as he puts it. But when the high school basketball star enlisted in the Army after graduation, he became a machine gunner for the infan- try. Budd lost his left leg and suffered internal injuries after his unit struck an improvised explosive device (IED) while patrolling in Afghanistan in July 2011, the third IED incident he had encountered in the three months he had been there. Just days before, he had rescued a fellow soldier for which he won the Medal of Valor. Budd was just 18 years old at the time. Talking to him he sounds like a man signifi cantly older than his 22 years. During his recovery at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Budd wanted to remain on active duty and was able to through the Continuation of Active Duty (COAD) Army program. From there, he set his sights on shooting in the Warrior Games. “Going from a job where I had to just shoot a bunch
of bullets in a general direction to one bullet in a specifi c shot, it turned out to be really challenging,” he said. “I knew it was the same principles – breathing, trigger con- trol – but now it was focusing on each shot; each single shot.”
While training, Budd eventually met Sgt. Armando
Ayala who convinced him he could take his competitive shooting to another level and compete internationally. This month he’ll compete in the IPC World Champion- ships in the R3 and R6 – two Prone Rifl e events. “I’ve been only doing this for about a year and what
I like about it is that it is a challenge,” Budd said. “If something’s easy, I don’t want to do it. It’s hard, and it’s frustrating and if you don’t stay focused, it can throw your whole score off. Luckily I’ve got guys on the team like (John) Joss that have been here, I can see how he does things and try to learn something.” While Budd has had to learn and transition in his role as an AMU athlete, he’s been able to provide mentorship as well. He traveled to Boston last year to help mentor victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. According to the Army’s Warrior Transition Command (WTC), “peer mentoring is one process that helps Soldiers in their own recoveries.” In April of this year, he and his fellow soldiers who participated in meeting with victims and sharing their recovery stories touched base with these people once again via a Facebook Town Hall. “Parents, doctors and nurses all tell you it’s going to
be okay, but you don’t believe it until someone who’s been through it tells you it’s going to be all right,” Budd told the WTC.
30 USA Shooting News | July 2014
Photo by: Kevin Liles
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