The last time Patrick Carpenter walked, it was a summer much like this one.

The year was 1981 and Carpenter, then 23, was fresh out of the Air Force.

“It was a hot summer, just like this year,” he said. “I went over to my folks’ house because they had an above-ground pool. We were swimming, staying cool and stuff.”

Carpenter said he was on his way to band practice when he decided to take one more dive into the pool.

“When I went and jumped in, I didn’t get my hands in front of me when I dived,” he said. “So the impact of the water brought my hands back to my chest, and I went straight down to the bottom.”

Without his hands to take the impact, Carpenter said his head struck the bottom of the pool and the sand that lined the ground under it.

“As soon as my head hit, it stayed there, and my body just rolled from the momentum,” Carpenter said. “It snapped my neck. It sounded like the Liberty Bell with a bunch of cotton in it, just a real dull ‘tung.’ I knew right away something was wrong. I just lay there because I knew enough to not panic. I knew my brother-in-law was there. I waited for him to jump in.”

Carpenter’s brother-in-law pulled him from the pool and called 911. He was taken to Valley General Hospital where he learned he had broken his neck.

Now, after almost 30 years in the chair, Carpenter still refuses to let his disability define him, remaining active in athletics, such as power soccer and helping his peers deal with their own disabilities.

Carpenter’s positive attitude in the face of diversity began soon after his accident.

“I stayed there (Valley General) for six weeks, and then went and did rehab at Puyallup Good Samaritan Hospital,” Carpenter said.

After four months of rehab, Carpenter said he knew it was time to get on with his life.

“I knew that there was nothing else they could teach me,” he said. “I knew right away I had to reeducate myself.”

“My mental state, I have to say, was quite exceptional,” Carpenter said. “A lot of guys say, ‘Oh, now my life is over. Now what do I do?’ But I didn’t take that attitude. Some psychiatrists told me, ‘oh, you have to go through depression, you have to go through denial.’ But I didn’t want to go through that. I just knew that I had to reeducate myself, and that’s what I did.”

Two months after getting out of the hospital, he began taking classes at Highline Community College and soon found a resource center in Montlake Terrace offering classes

Carpenter said the class resulted in a job with Rainier Bank, where he worked for 20 years before retiring.

“I’m more busy now than I was when I worked,” he said. “I do a lot of volunteer work and peer counseling up at the VA hospital in Seattle. I go there a couple of times a week and talk to the guys coming back. If they have any questions, I help them out.

“So I’m quite busy,” he said. “I don’t slow down, although I probably should.”

After retiring, Carpenter said, he decided to get involved in athletics. Four years ago, he attended his first National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

“I got to do so many things that I never thought I’d do,” he said. “They have adapted so many sports so that disabled people in wheelchairs could do them. Trap shooting, air rifle, bowling, power soccer, track and field events and obstacle courses. This year we had over 600 athletes in Spokane. And it keeps building.”

Inspired by the annual event, Carpenter said he got in touch with Tom Bungert, who had started Rolling Thunder, a power soccer team in the Puget Sound area.

“I’d heard about it, and it looked kind of fun,” he said. “So I checked it out. This team was just starting out and had about seven people. We had a little scrimmage at the picnic and it was a lot of fun, so I stuck around.”

Using power wheelchairs with special guards placed on the front, where the foot rests are, power soccer uses basically the same rules as soccer. Teams field four players, a goalie and three mobile players. The ball is larger, and instead of throwing in from the sidelines, the players kick it in. Otherwise, the rules are identical, Carpenter said.

“If you slam into another wheelchair too hard, you get yellow and red cards,” he said. “It’s almost the same as regular soccer.”

Now, in his third year with Rolling Thunder, Carpenter helps out the younger players.

“We’re trying to build the team, help out with the new kids and teach them stuff, because coach has got so many responsibilities,” he said. “So I try to chip in.”

And much like his work at the VA, Carpenter said he also grabs the chance to help make the younger players understand that there are many opportunities out there for wheelchair-bound athletes.

“I try to make them understand that there is a lot of things in life they can do,” he said. “So hopefully I can help open their eyes a little bit.”

More information on Rolling Thunder can be found at www.rollingthundr.org.