Keith Zeier believes simple acts of friendship and informal instruction in a common interest can save returning wounded soldiers and their families.
More than just donating money, he believes people can share time and a skill for, say, fixing cars or building custom cabinets to help returning soldiers adapt and find new meaning in life.
"It is just what Andy did for me," he said, referring to his ice climbing partner on Mount Washington, Thursday, Andy Politz of Ohio.
He described a sort of rescue of the soul, to bring new meaning to continuing on with one's life.
Retired Marine Sgt. Keith Zeier, 26, of Brooklyn, "isn't like any normal guy you ever met," said Politz, an accomplished ice and rock climber from Ohio, who met Zeier when he was tied to him by rope for 19 hours climbing 14,411-foot Mount Rainier last June.
"He's a special ops guy. They are like that." he said.
Politz is taking time from his work and life in Ohio to offer Zeier a "sampler" of climbing experiences, which Thursday includes Mount Washington's ice in winter.
"The Rainier climb was the most important experience of my life," said Zeier.
It came after suffering incalculable loss. First, the loss of many of his comrades of the Second Reconnaissance Battalion in 2006, which still tears him up at the thought. Then, sustaining a traumatic brain injury and the eventual loss of his left leg from a roadside bomb in Iraq. The injury to his brain makes it hard to recollect and study while the shrapnel in the leg has left him in constant pain.
Zeier began running as a way to honor the fallen and help their families pay for educations for their children.
He has raised over $100,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and continues to raise money with this climb.
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