U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

Carlos Figueroa monoskis in Aspen Snowmass on Thursday as part of a VA sports clinic for disabled veterans.

An Iraq war veteran who yearns to snowboard next March at the Sochi Paralympics recently told a priest he would give his left leg to compete for his country. And then, he did.

Six weeks ago, retired Army Sgt. Carlos Figueroa allowed a surgeon to amputate below his left knee — 10 years after an IED blast rendered the limb nearly useless. The decision was surprisingly simple, he said, because it sliced away a decade of mounting pain. Yet he also acknowledged: “I did give it up because I want to get into the Paralympics.”

“When I went in, my doctor asked me: ‘What’s your biggest goal?’ I told him: ‘Be on my board within three months.’ He just said, ‘Dude, most people aren’t walking within three months,’ ” Figueroa recalled. 

Walking will come. What he can do — already — is carve down a mountain, the lone place Figueroa, 34, feels at peace: “Up there, I’m no different from anybody. No PTSD. I’m at my happiest.” On Thursday, Figueroa beamed while manhandling an Aspen, Colo., slope atop a monoski at a sports clinic for disabled veterans. As a familiar, cool breeze brushed his face, he also dreamed about racing in Russia.

“My love for snowboarding is about loss, the loss of what I had in the military, where you’re used to being on the move, on patrols, on raids. That’s how I treat my races. The moment that gate drops, it’s like the door opening on a raid. I go full blast. I’m able to get something back that I felt was taken away. That rush. I love it.”

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

"Up there, I'm no different from anybody. No PTSD. I'm at my happiest," said Carlos Figueroa of the feeling of carving down slopes.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have borne a bittersweet byproduct: scores of American Paralympic hopefuls. The Sochi Paralympics, to be held just after the 2014 Winter Games in that city, marks the inaugural Paralympic snowboarding event for disabled athletes. The U.S. men’s Paralympic snowboarding squad will consist of five members.

'Slim chance'
Figueroa (and those close to him) knows he’s the longest of long shots. His own coach, Mike Shea, estimates he took two years to, literally, make the leap from his own leg amputation to landing jumps. The raw nerve endings in an amputated limb must become desensitized to the harsh pounding. When the board hits the snow, the stump pushes into the prosthetic leg, “sending chills up your spine,” Shea said. “It doesn’t feel good.”

Then there’s the calendar. If Figueroa is indeed back on his board by autumn, he’ll have a limited number of sanctioned races — beginning in January 2014 — to rack up enough points to rank among the top five American men. And the U.S. Paralympic snowboarders, including Shea, compose the world’s deepest talent pool in that sport. The roster likely will be named in February.

“It’s a slim chance, a super, super small window,” Figueroa said, “but we’re still going to push.”

He needs only a sliver of possibility to kindle his hope — or better yet, someone telling him he can’t. He certainly doesn’t need two legs.

The Feb. 15 amputation came 10 years after a bomb detonated beneath his armored vehicle, ejecting him through an open roof hatch. A decade spent lugging a useless left limb (with no heel), suffering increasing back and knee pain, instantly convinced him to say “Let’s do it,” when an orthopedic surgeon in San Diego suggested, “Let’s cut.” He was done, he said, wasting another day “in a bubble” due to his injury, calling the operation “liberating.”

'Go fast and have fun'
Nobody who has heard that account is betting against Figueroa.

“With any military athlete, you can definitely see that sense of pride and determination above and beyond what you see with other athletes. Part of it is just a chance to represent their county again,” said Kevin Jardine, high performance director of Parlaympic alpine skiing and snowboarding for the U.S. Olympic Committee. “They’re willing to sacrifice a lot.”

Added Shea, who lost his leg in a 2002 wake-boarding accident: “Anything you tell Carlos, he’ll get it done. He always seems to find a way. He has no fear up there. He has passion. And I’ve learned from him the smiling gets you a long way in life.”

This week at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Aspen, organized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Figueroa has been tempted to grab a board and shred. This is his fourth year attending. As a testament to his disregard for other people’s timelines, he couldn’t even stand on a snowboard four years ago due to his injury, yet he competed in a World Cup event for disabled snowboarders not long after that.

Until his prosthetic leg arrives, he’ll stick to monoskiing, during which he sits in a “bucket” atop one ski, using his arms to hold smaller, balancing skis.

“The first run, I took it slow. After that, I opened it up,” Figueroa said. “I just want to go fast and have fun.”

When the instructor noticed his raw speed, he warned Figueroa: “You do realize if you go down, you may peel off half your face.”

Figueroa simply grinned: “That’s alright.”

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American companies now marketing themselves as “veteran friendly” get a chance Tuesday to verify the depth of their patriotism by simply filling out a survey.

The National Veteran-Owned Business Association (NaVOBA) — an advocacy group for more than 3 million businesses owned by former service members — will release on Tuesday its annual questionnaire to once again assess, grade and name “the 10 best U.S. corporations that work with veteran-owned businesses,” the organization said. 

The top 10, to be published in the April issue Vetrepreneur magazine, will include only U.S. firms with more than $1 billion in annual revenues to ensure a fair comparison. NoVOBA assembles its annual list by examining how heavily each company uses veteran-owned businesses in its supplier network and by how aggressively the company works to pull veteran-owned vendors into its larger mission and keep them there. 

“Being a ‘veteran friendly’ company — not only in your hiring but also by using veteran firms — is very good press, and companies want to be reflected in that way,” said Matthew Pavelek, managing editor of Vetrepreneur magazine. “But I think there’s something to be said about the business case: They’re getting the best-quality products and services by using these (veteran-owned) businesses.”

For companies that choose to participate in the online survey, NaVOBA weights the percentage of small-business contracts that are allotted to veteran-owned firms as well as the total dollar volume paid to veteran-owned vendors.

For any veteran-owned outfits involved in helping boost conglomerates into top 10, there is pressure as well, Pavelek added.

“Wearing your veteran status on your sleeve kind of comes with this inherent responsibility and obligation to the rest of the veteran community to really follow through," Pavelek said. “You run the risk of giving all veterans a bad name if you don’t come in under budget or actually accomplish what you were set out to do with that contract.”

Some of the U.S. companies that have earned slots in NaVOBA's recent top-10 lists include: Booz Allen Hamilton, Comcast Corporation, DynCorp International, Johnson & Johnson, Life Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and Mack Trucks, Inc. 

(NBCNews.com is owned by Comcast’s NBC Universal unit.)

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The gunman who walked into a Michigan police station and opened fire on Veterans Day was a 64-year-old military veteran in poor physical health and struggling with “internal issues,” police said Monday.

Harold Joseph Collins, of Southfield, Mich., was killed in a shootout with officers at police headquarters in Southfield on Sunday afternoon, authorities said. An officer was wounded in the exchange.

At a press conference Monday, Southfield Police Chief Eric Hawkins outlined the sequence of events that led to the shootout.

He said Collins, brandishing a .380-caliber handgun, walked into the lobby of the police station with a blank stare on his face; without warning he tried to shoot an officer behind bulletproof glass.

“The suspect approached the front desk officer and simply stared at the officer. The suspect appeared to be staring into the distance and not a word was said,” Hawkins said.

The weapon didn’t discharge. Other officers then quickly confronted the gunman.

“He was ordered several times to drop his weapon. The suspect refused.  Instead, he pointed the weapon at officers,” Hawkins said.

In the ensuing exchange, a 50-year-old police sergeant was shot in the shoulder. The gunman was shot several times and died.

Hawkins described Collins as a military veteran “who appeared to be in poor physical health” and may also have had psychological problems.

“Based on the behavior of this individual, in my opinion and in the opinion of investigating officers …this person was struggling with some very serious internal issues,” the police chief said.

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Hawkins said he didn’t know the gunman’s motive. Collins had no known criminal history.

“We can only speculate and right now I won’t, but yes, obviously yesterday was Veterans Day and we have information this person was a veteran. We have information this person was in poor health and had other internal issues.”

Hawkins wouldn't go into details about Collins' health issues but a former stepdaughter, Seretha Nobles, told the Detroit News on Monday that Collins had been suffering from throat cancer for many years.

"He couldn't speak, he can't talk," Nobles told the newspaper in a phone interview from her Georgia home.

Hawkins said the gunman arrived at the police department in a 2010 Dodge, which was later impounded for evidence. Investigators also planned to search the gunman's home for clues.

The wounded officer, whose name was not released, was “conscious, alert and in good spirits” at a hospital, Hawkins said. He was expected to be released later Monday or Tuesday.

All officers involved in the confrontation have been put on administrative leave per department policy pending an investigation.

Surveillance cameras in the lobby captured at least part of the confrontation, and the videos will be reviewed, the police chief said.

The shooting is being investigated by the Oakland County sheriff’s department. The Southfield Police Department will also do an internal investigation to make sure proper procedures were followed, Hawkins said.

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An 80-year-old Korean war veteran pushed his wife away from a car spinning out of control and heading straight for them as they stood on a New York City street corner, saving her life before he was killed, she told NBCNewYork.com on Monday.

Denise Baum, 62, and Rubin Baum were trying to hail a cab on the Upper Eastside around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday when a sedan and minivan collided, sending the sedan careening their way.

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Rubin, a former two-time Purple Heart recipient as a war medic, quickly gave Denise a strong shove to push her out of harm's way. Rubin was pinned beneath the sedan.

“It was the most frightening thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” Denise Baum told NBCNewYork.com. “I don’t know what happened but I saw this black car, and I really do believe he did something so heroic.”

The couple was rushed to the hospital, where Rubin died. Denise Baum was released and spoke to reporters after the accident.

Rubin Baum, known as Ruby, was a devoted grandfather and New York Giant season ticket holder who had run several successful companies in the garment industry and later worked in real estate, The New York Times reported.

The couple met while trying to hail a cab in New York, the paper said.

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John Moore / Getty Images

Sgt. JD Williams, 25, and a triple amputee, flowboards on a wave machine at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. The wave therapy is designed to improve balance, coordination and strength for injured soldiers, most of whom have lost limbs in combat. Williams lost his legs and right arm in October 2010 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while his unit was on a foot patrol in the Arghandab Valley of southern Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Colonel Donald Gajewski swears he has the best job in the military.

As an orthopedic surgeon and chief of the Center for the Intrepid at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Dr. Gajewski oversees the care of soldiers who return from combat with the most severe wounds.

The center, which opened in 2007, is one of three military facilities in the country for amputees, and it also rehabilitates soldiers with serious burns and injured limbs that were not amputated. More than 1,000 service members have been treated at the Center for the Intrepid in the past five years, many of them for lost limbs.

The joy in Gajewski's work comes from watching these soldiers confront the reality of their injuries with the same drive and determination that characterized their military service.

Sgt. JD Williams, 25, (above) lost his legs and right arm in October 2010 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while his unit was on foot patrol in the Arghandab Valley of southern Afghanistan. Gajewski calls Williams a "superstar" whose nearly two-year-long stay at the center has been defined by his leadership.

"The inspiring thing about JD," Gajewski says, "is that he comes in here and he knows that there are other (amputees) that will look up to him."

One of Williams' goals was to hunt by himself again. Now, Williams not only dresses deer in the field by himself, but he recently took other triple amputees into the woods too. He also has taken up bow hunting.

There is grief and pain, though, as soldiers work to meet their ambitious goals.

Gajewski says they often arrive at Brooke Army Medical Center devastated after three or four days of being evacuated from the front lines to the U.S. hospital. They've spent the time thinking: "My military career is over, my girlfriend is going to leave me, I won’t be able to fly-fish with my dad," Gajewski says.

John Moore / Getty Images

A U.S. Army soldier and leg amputee scales a two-story climbing wall at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7.

Slideshow: Healing wounded warriors at BAMC

John Moore / Getty Images

At the Center for the Intrepid at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, soldiers confront the reality of their injuries with the same drive and determination that characterized their military service.

Launch slideshow

The center tries to show patients a different future by matching them with a soldier in rehabilitation, who might walk through the door on two prosthetic legs. "That’s when it clicks," Gajewski says. 

A soldier with a single below-the-knee amputation might stay at the center for six months, receiving a prosthetic and physical and occupational therapy. The timeline lengthens with the severity and number of amputations; for those who lost both legs above the knee, a stay at the center might last as long as two years.

Among the amputees treated at the center, 17 percent have returned to active duty once recovered, and some eventually deploy again, often in support roles. A handful have even returned to combat. Of the 49,000 Iraq and Afghanistan casualties, more than 1,400 have been amputees. 

"These guys have a lifetime of adversity in front of them, but from what they show us," Gajewski says, "I think they’re going to do pretty well."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.

John Moore / Getty Images

Certified prosthetist Robert Kuenzi holds a life-like sleeve for a prosthetic arm at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. Artists paint the rubber covers, complete with custom tattoos, which slide over prosthetic arms and legs made at the center for military amputees.

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LOS ANGELES - A U.S. Army soldier who prosecutors say falsely claimed to have fought in Vietnam and Afghanistan - and to have earned two Purple Heart medals and a Bronze Star for heroism - was indicted on federal charges on Wednesday, the 68th anniversary of D-Day.

Command Sergeant Major William John Roy is accused of lying about his service as he sought disability, medical and educational benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said. 

Roy, 57, was awarded more than $27,000 in disability benefits and $30,000 in educational benefits after submitting bogus evidence of his combat wounds and bravery in action, Mrozek said. 

He faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison if convicted at trial. 

According to an indictment handed down in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Roy claimed he served as a medic in Vietnam in 1974 and was twice injured in combat during that war. 

Roy also claimed that he was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze star for his heroism in Vietnam -- when in fact an investigation found that he had been in Germany serving in a non-combat role at the time, Mrozek said. 

Among the documentation Roy provided was a Purple Heart certificate purportedly signed by President Richard Nixon but dated four months after Nixon had resigned from office, Mrozek said. 

Roy also sent a letter to the Army in 2008 seeking a Purple Heart for extensive injuries he said he sustained in a mortar and rocket attack at a forward operating base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, when in fact he was not involved in such an incident, Mrozek said. 

Roy was indicted on one count of presenting false writings to defraud the United States, three counts of making false statements to the government and three counts of stealing government property. 

Mrozek said Roy, who remains on active duty, would be sent a summons to appear in federal court next month for an arraignment on the charges. 

The Southwest Riverside News Network quoted Mrozek as saying the defendant, who has been in the Army for more than 35 years, was currently at home in Winchester, Calif.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Volunteers work under the 16-inch guns at the stern of the USS Iowa in Richmond, California, on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES - The USS Iowa, which ferried the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the perilous Atlantic waters to a historic meeting with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in the dark days of World War Two, is to become a floating museum.

The battleship saw combat in the Pacific, survived a devastating explosion in a gun turret, and even a snub from the city of San Francisco. At the end of its final voyage, the storied warship will have a permanent mooring in San Pedro, Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to create a permanent home for the ship at the city's port, where it will open as a floating museum.

AP, file

A cloud of gunfire smoke hangs over the USS Iowa during exercises on Oct. 17, 1952.

The vessel, which saw service with the U.S. Navy over six tumultuous decades, will become the only battleship museum on the U.S. West Coast when it opens on July 7.

"There's no more ships like this in existence in the active navies anywhere in the world," said Robert Kent, president of the Pacific Battleship Center.

"They've either been sunk, scrapped or turned into museums, and the Iowa is the last battleship to find a home," he added.

'Your ship is coming in'
It is expected to attract 400,000 visitors a year and could revitalize the city’s port area, jubilant local officials told the Los Angeles Daily News.

"This will help transform our waterfront in making it a world-class destination," Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino told commissioners, adding that the area will soon see interconnected network of promenades, open spaces and shops.

We're all so excited," Katherine Gray, vice president of the San Pedro Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Daily News. "You really feel the swell of support and excitement. ... San Pedro, your ship is coming in."

The 887-foot Iowa-class warship was commissioned in 1943.

That same year it took Roosevelt across the Atlantic on his way to a meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran with British Prime Minister Churchill and Soviet strongman Stalin, the first conference of the "Big Three" Allied leaders of the war.

The hulking warship, which towers 175 feet above the water line, was equipped with a special bathtub for Roosevelt -- who was partially paralyzed following a bout with polio -- which remains on board to this day.

Later in the war, it pounded beachheads in the Pacific with its 16-inch guns ahead of Allied landings, and took part in the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945. During the Korean War in the 1950s, it conducted gun strikes and bombardments.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Curator David Way sits at the bow of the U.S. battleship USS Iowa in Richmond, California, on Thursday.

In 1989, off the coast of Puerto Rico, an explosion within a gun turret on board the ship killed 47 sailors.

The Iowa was decommissioned in 1990 and was later kept in a naval center in Rhode Island before it was towed through the Panama Canal to Northern California.

'Don't ask, don't tell'
Historic groups in Northern California had sought to find a permanent home there for the ship, but they faced a number of setbacks. Among them was a vote in 2005 by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to reject a resolution to move the Iowa to the city as a floating museum.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time that some city supervisors had voted against the resolution out of opposition to the U.S. military's then-policy of "don't ask, don't tell," which barred gays and lesbians from openly serving in the armed forces.

Several members of the board who took part in the 2005 vote could not be reached for comment.

The Iowa, which once powered through the waves at a top speed of 33 knots or 40 miles per hour, will have to be towed to Los Angeles from Richmond, in North California, where it has been undergoing a $7 million restoration.

The funds included $3 million from the state of Iowa, where residents have taken a keen interest in the ship, Kent said.

It is set to leave Richmond on Sunday, pass under the Golden Gate Bridge and arrive off the coast of Los Angeles on May 24.

While the Iowa will be the only battleship museum on the West Coast, San Diego, also in southern California, has the USS Midway Museum to showcase that historic aircraft carrier.

The Midway attracts about a million visitors a year, and the Pacific Battleship Center, the group responsible for bringing the USS Iowa to Los Angeles, hopes to one day approach those numbers. Initially, they expect up to 500,000 visitors a year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

PALM BAY, Fla.  — Despite rumors to the contrary, Army veteran Jerry Miller is still very much alive.

"I'm alive. I’m very alive," Miller told WESH 2 News.

The U.S. Veterans Administration has declared him dead four times, but Miller, a Brevard County resident, has refuted the claims.

For more, visit WESH.com

"To me, it’s stupid. I can’t die but one time. They have killed me four times," he said.

Miller, a former drill sergeant, served 10 years in the Army. He said he lives on a government pension and Social Security.

The confusion started in July 2010 when he received a letter addressed to his estate that expressed sympathy for his death and politely explained that, as a dead man, he was not eligible for the veterans benefits he was paid.

Miller said he informed the VA that he was still alive, and his benefits were restarted. But the letters kept coming, each one stopping his benefits.

"I'm alive, you see. This can’t keep going on and on," Miller said.

He said a letter came this month -- addressed to his estate -- requesting repayment of more than $94,000 in benefits he shouldn't have received, because he was dead, and that it included polite instructions how to make the payment.

Miller said he has no idea why he was declared dead.

A VA spokesman told WESH 2 News that the organization was looking into the case.

Miller said he asked his congressman to do the same, but so far, being alive has not been sufficient proof that he is not dead.

Anchorage Police Dept. via AP

Sean Warner, 26, is accused of charges including manslaughter. According to his family, Warner served as a Navy field medic in Afghanistan and now suffers from post-traumatic stress.

ANCHORAGE - A 26-year-old Navy veteran who served as a medic in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he injected two Alaska teens with drugs on separate occasions, giving one of them a fatal dose.

Sean Warner was first charged with injecting Jena Dolstad, a 14-year-old from Anchorage. She died from the heroin dose almost a week later, and the charge was consequently raised to manslaughter.

He is also charged with evidence tampering and two counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.

Court records show Warner now faces a new charge of earlier injecting another teen with heroin sometime between Dec. 14 and Dec. 21.

Police Lt. Dave Parker said the second teen — identified only as "R.H." — is a 17-year-old girl. He said she was injected multiple times by Warner.

Anchorage authorities believe Warner didn't intend to harm the girls.

Warner is being held on $100,000 cash bail. A trial was set for March 27.

Dolstad's stepfather, Brett Williams, told NBC station Channel 2 news/KTUU.com his family had some ups and downs, but Jena always came back home. Williams said he's now making arrangements for her funeral and celebration of life.

He told the station she was a typical teenager. He said her mother wasn't around much, and added Jena, simply, made a wrong choice.

“I know she got mixed in with some people I tried to warn her about,” he said on the phone. “And it went from there.”

'She just made a mistake'
A single father who works graveyard shifts, Williams insisted he gave her a stable home.

When asked if his stepdaughter slipped through the cracks, Williams responded, “She just made a mistake, that’s all she did.

A number of Facebook tribute pages have been set up in honor of Dolstad.

Warner's uncle, Doug Tweedie of Bend, Ore., told The Associated Press that Warner served as a Navy field medic in Afghanistan and now suffers from post-traumatic stress.

• More at NBC News Alaska station Channel 2 news/KTUU.com

Tweedie said he and his wife helped raise Warner and that Warner did very well in school and was ambitious. Warner also did well in the Navy, he said.

Tweedie said he spoke with Warner through Warner's father.

"He's terribly remorseful," Tweedie said Thursday. "He's in a very difficult spot."

According to court papers filed before Dolstad's death, two other men went with Warner to pick up the girl the evening of Dec. 22, and they took her to Warner's home to hang out.

• STORY: Alaska teen critical after heroin overdose

Warner was sharing a gram of heroin with the men, and Dolstad said she was willing to try something "new" but didn't want to inject herself, according to the court papers. Warner tried to inject the girl but failed, so he had her lie on his bed and hold out an arm. He then used his belt as a tourniquet and shot 25 to 30 units of heroin, taking several times to find a vein, the papers say.

The two witnesses told authorities they left the girl — identified as "J.D." in court papers — on the bed and found her the next morning, face-down in her vomit.

Warner initially balked at calling 911 because he feared authorities would find drugs, and instead gave the teen Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opiate addicts, the court papers say. He called 911 after the girl began to convulse a couple of hours after he gave her the Suboxone, the papers say.

Syringes
Warner locked his bedroom door, and responding officers didn't search it when he told them it was his roommate's room, according to the documents. After police left, Warner and one of the witnesses put needles and other "related evidence" into a box then tossed it behind a trash bin at a nearby business, according to the papers, which say police later recovered paraphernalia including syringes.

Dolstad was found to have heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine in her system when she was brought to the hospital, charging documents said. Medics told authorities she sustained damage to her brain and heart.

Authorities have said the heroin used is known on the street at "China White," considered more potent than common tar heroin.

As far as Tweedie is concerned, no one really knows what happened.

"At this point, two addicts are blaming another addict," he said. "I don't know if I believe another addict."

Figures published last month by the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future program — an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults — show the level of heroin use had remains "steady" but marijuana use has risen for four straight years.

Alcohol use — and occasions of heavy drinking — continued a long-term gradual decline among teens, reaching historically low levels in 2011, the study found.

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