Corps amputee is first to complete difficult swim course
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Not content just learning how to walk again after a combat injury, Staff Sgt. Adam Jacks needed a new challenge and he found it in arguably one of the most difficult courses here.
Jacks was on the tail end of his third deployment — and his second to Afghanistan — in April 2011 when he took a bad step. An undetected improvised explosive device irrevocably altered the life of the father of two.
"I just happened to find the sweet spot," he said. "Twenty pounds of (homemade explosives), a pressure plate IED. And that's when everything totally turned upside-down."
Jacks suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost much of his right leg. But leaving the Corps was out of the question. Eventually ending up at The Basic School here at Quantico, where he serves as company gunnery sergeant for Headquarters and Service Company, Jacks bumped into a former comrade from his days in Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines earlier this year.
Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Marshall, chief instructor trainer of Marine Combat Instructor of Water Survival Course, immediately pressed Jacks into signing up for his upcoming evolution. Though leery at first — graduates must swim 59 miles in three weeks among other requirements — Marshall's confidence proved infectious.
"I was looking for a challenge — us Marines, we love a challenge — and you just give it your all," Jacks said. "He's combat wounded as well and he understands how (the course) works, how it's helped him out from a physical standpoint. He said, 'Bro, I promise you, you have the mental drive to do such things. I know you won't quit on me.'"
Convinced, Jacks signed up just a few days before the course began, knowing he would have to learn how to swim again and quickly. Days of trial and error ensued as Jacks collaborated with his instructors and classmates to compensate for a missing limb.
He used a prosthesis, but for buoyancy, Jacks said. Otherwise, it was all upper-body strength and willpower to get through the long hours in the water.
"You take all the negatives, the darkness of things, adversity as a whole and you use that as your fuel," he said. "The human mind is a beautiful thing. You'd be surprised what guys can do in the face of adversity or obstacles like that … you dig deep and you push through and the next thing you know it's over."
Of the nine Marines in the class, Jacks was one of the only six who finished successfully. He officially graduated Nov. 25, becoming a certified MCIWS instructor, lifeguard and the first amputee to complete the course.
His reaction? Relief, and for more than finishing the course.
"It shows me that there's always an instinct … a goal, a task, a drive to get you through things," Jacks said. "It resolidifies everything that's in my true meaning of being a Marine. There's never any quit, no mountain too high, never anything you can't overcome."