If you have so many things it would be hard to die, you need to wake up. (Wayne Webb)

Roy Dye Bio - Why I'm walking...

How we use our space while here on earth is important to me. After four years of watching my life and health decline, I started searching for answers. I was shocked at some of the answers I found. The answers from within, about me, and those around me, in similar or same circumstances and conditions were startling. There were many more than I had imagined.

However, lets back up to the commitment and the expedition. I owe a great deal, if not all, to my family, close friends, and my up bringing. Of course, we had a somewhat realistic faith based religious background. It goes without saying that you should have a faith based life or background, of some sort anyway.

You must believe you can. You must believe you can accomplish your mission. Regardless of the pain and suffering, the heartache, or memories of the past that haunt or disable you. You MUST believe you can. You must start. If you commit, you can get fit. Commit and you will realize your goal. Nothing will happen until you decide it will happen. We can never go back. Of course I am walking because I can, and especially in remembrance of all those that have passed on before us.

I believe you have the power… to turn your life around. Prior to my research trying to find out why my life, and some of those around me, was in such a decaying state of affairs (seemingly), it would have been very hard to imagine your life having more ups and downs, more highs and lows, more joys and sorrows, and more heartaches than mine. However, just doing the research gave me a new lease on life and an entirely new perspective on living, and more importantly, why we are here.  Go ahead, say it – why are you here? Just saying it out loud is a start.

Progression and regression are part of our lives and our emotions. We are inclined to slip a bit here and there. Some of us, a great deal. If we are not careful, we can slip into a disabling situation that can wreck our lives, or even our existence. You do not have to have a physical disability to become severely disabled. A misguided state of mind can disable you emotionally.

Once we make the discovery, and realize that a disability can be a physical or mental disability, then we can see the consequences of a continued decline, or the benefits of a complete recovery. Regardless of what the condition is, whether it's a loss of a loved one, divorce, property, limbs, health, overweight, underweight, and hundreds of other conditions that affect us physically and mentally, all are, or can be, disabling – if we allow it to happen. Remember, there are many others to learn from, you are not alone.

Dreams are how we motivate ourselves into and out of certain conditions. Growing up, we lived on a farm and my brother and I wanted off the farm more than anything in the world. We dreamed of better things out there somewhere, although we didn’t know what. At twelve, I built a helicopter in the back yard. All out of wood and with no motor. My dad asked if it would fly. My brother just laughed. I said, “Sure, if I had a motor.” I never forgot the dream of flying and leaving the farm behind.

I finally landed a job at a nearby airfield with a grass runway used by crop dusters. The dreams continued. They paid me in flying time while I was in school. At sixteen I was ready to solo the little Aronica 7AC Champ that we had been using for training. What a thrill. Back then I thought nothing of it and expected to fly like them anyway, with the big boys.

I still have the little worn out logbook. Even though there were never enough flight hours to get a pilot’s license, I went on to fly with them for some incredible flight hours. We flew close to the ground because we had only basic flight instruments. 

The years passed and I talked my folks into signing for me to go into the service. My older brother was already in service. I would now realize my dream and become a real pilot. As luck would have it I was assigned elsewhere, Air Police training. After police training I applied for flight training again while carrying out my regular duties. An accident one night as we were changing guards sent me to the hospital with a gunshot wound. According to records we slept most of the time on duty because of our constant partying when off duty, and after all, the stockade was only filled with our buddies anyway. A great majority of us were still teenagers. American peacetime soldiers. We didn’t see them as criminals. If they weren’t in there, chances are we would have been in there sooner or later ourselves, mischievous as we were. But, we stayed locked and loaded with live rounds. An accident was bound to happen sooner or later. There was no war. The Korean War was over and Vietnam hadn’t been thought of yet, to my knowledge.

Needless to say, I was very upset because I had received notification that I was accepted for flight school training on the next round. They sent me to the hospital, made temporary repairs and put my leg in a cast. I was thrilled that everything would be alright and I might make the next class for flight training. Whammo, another setback. The leg became infected and had to be bandaged and left open to drain. Back to wheelchairs and crutches. More bad news. It turned into gangrene. Seems they though it would never heal correctly now. On top of that the bone was getting infected and turned into osteomyelitis. They sent me to a bigger hospital at Maxwell AFB. Months of work and eleven operations later didn’t fix the problem.

Transferred to the VA hospital in Memphis I was advised that they would have to amputate the leg to save my life and stop the infection from spreading. After two years of operations and painful convalescents I agreed and signed for the amputation. An artificial limb would certainly be better than what I had at the time, they said. One more setback. They decided to discharge me if they removed the leg. The military certainly didn't need anyone that wasn't top of the line physically. They had plenty of applicants and the draft. The only good thing about booting me out was that it would be an honorable full retirement discharge. There was nothing else good about it. It ended my dream of flying. I think they have changed the rules now and will allow an amputee to remain in the military.

I could no longer fly, let alone for the military. That’s when the depression set in. A long, long healing process. Mentally and physically. I was very upset, a wreck, I drank a lot, and didn’t have a clear cut plan for life down the road. I had lost my way. I don’t drink now, haven’t in many years, and also quit smoking years ago. I accomplished this in spite of other hardships that seemed to keep coming my way. Besides, I owed my family and my kids. I would do my best. So I gave it the old one, two, three.

I learned to walk really well and was able to return to work. But it wasn’t flying. I eventually got back into flight training (private) and went on to obtain not only a private pilots license but a commercial pilots license with full instrument and instructor ratings, an ATP, Airline Transport Rating and Helicopter Rating.

If you are not ready for the ups and downs, the bumps and grinds in life, then you might be heading for trouble. Mentally anyway. My father died as the result of a brain tumor. My mother also had a large tumor removed. Basically successful, although she continued to suffer until her passing. My older brother also died and my next to youngest brother died in an automobile accident. Only two of us left now. My youngest brother and me. You’d think I’d be accustomed to this kind of shock and awe by now. However, nothing as tragic as my son being killed in a heavy equipment accident. The most devastating time of my life. I think I actually gave up at that point.

My first wife, mother of my oldest daughter, died of breast cancer. I have walked in cancer campaigns many times for her – and everyone associated with cancer in any way - and for my son on every walk. I could walk for the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Cancer Research Institute, accident prevention, the underprivileged children of the world, the handicapped, Muscular Dystrophy Association, the mentally or physically challenged, or the American Heart Association forever and still not draw enough attention to the needs or the financial requirements of the distressed or afflicted and the handicapped worldwide. Things just happen. Like waves on an ocean, there is no perfect life, no straight line.

However in spite of the obstacles I have encountered, compared to some, I have a very decent life. I have a new wife, whose stepfather incidentally, was just diagnosed with lung cancer! Even though he quit smoking more than fifteen years ago. I also have three beautiful children, all girls. I hope and pray that they will not encounter such obstacles in their lifetime. Although the passing of my son, their brother, is a tremendous burden and an obstacle that seems insurmountable, they are doing a beautiful job, and I have accepted the fact that life must go on and we can never go back, except through memories.

That’s why I walk. Because I can, and hope that I will inspire others to grab their boot straps, and lift themselves out of whatever dilemma or low spot that will occasionally pop up. I can assure you it can be done. Four years ago doctors discovered a heart problem brought on by tension, inactivity, added weight, and a right knee problem caused by a torn cartilage and added stress associated with the prosthesis. Eventually they had to operate and open the amputated leg again. Pack it and let it drain because a new infection had popped up. Talk about a set back. Back in a wheelchair and on crutches again. Weight out of control. Up to almost 300 pounds and cholesterol up over 250. Give up, or do something about it! I had never given up... why start now?

I followed the doctor’s instructions, declined any operations on the right knee for the torn cartilage and took cortisone injections while I tried to regain my walking ability once again. I now have proof and I am a firm believer that if you don’t use it you lose it. With prosthesis on one leg and a damaged knee on the other, I started practicing walking again. They have already explained the benefits of replacing the right knee with an artificial knee, but why hurry! If it has to be replaced eventually why not wait as long as possible?

Although it’s taken four years to get to this point I feel I have accomplished the impossible. It’s very hard to exercise and lose weight with sub-par limbs an overweight condition, or both. However I have lost over fifty pounds and have lowered my total cholesterol to less than 120 with the LDL under 93 (without cholesterol medication). Still my ideal weight is forty pounds below where I am now.

At seventy I can’t run in any of the funding events, but I walk in many of them and have decided that when the time comes I will participate in a wheelchair if necessary, providing I am able, which is why I am walking today, while I can. Corporate sponsorship is becoming extremely difficult since corporations, out of necessity, have geared their efforts toward groups and pre-established charities.  Many individuals with outstanding abilities willing to contribute are passed over because of this ever increasing corporate change.

If successful, I intend to use proceeds to establish a charitable trust, or foundation, IRC Section 501(c)(3), and continue helping others.

If I can help someone regain their health, learn to walk again, slim down, get their lives back, and enjoy life a little more, then the “Roy Dye Walking, Biking, Hiking Our Way Across America Marathon Expedition” will be worth it. However, make no mistake, I am walking for me. I need to walk across America (or as far as I can) for me and my family, past and present! If I can accomplish this, many will benefit. I realize the odds are great and that some have died trying to accomplish such a feat. The most famous, in my opinion, Terry Fox ( www.sfu.ca/terryfox/about.html ) who, with one leg, ran across Canada but died on route before reaching his destination. Please visit this site and read his compelling story. He changed a nation.

I intend to make a difference. That is my goal.

Besides, one day my luck is gonna change... In the meantime, I don't intend to sit here waiting for "Six White Horses."

Until then I’ll keep walking, biking, hiking and leave a smile and handshake everywhere I go. (“Walking Our Way”) WOW.

Roy Dye

Contact Information

General Information: roydye@roydye.org