Episode 788: Resilience in the Face of Adversity with Matias Ferreira - America's First Active Double-Amuptee LEO

On today's episode, Dennis speaks with Marine veteran and America's first active double-amuptee LEO, Matias Ferreira. Matias was born in Uruguay, and immigrated to the U.S. (Atlanta) with his family when he was six, joining the Marines at 19.  He took his oath to become an American citizen in September 2010, days before he deployed to Afghanistan as a machine gunner with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Just months into his first deployment in January 2011, Lance Corporal Ferreira lost both legs and broke his pelvis after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Treated by a Navy Corpsman and medically evacuated to Bagram (Afghanistan) hospital, he was flown to Landstuhl, Germany, and then brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. There he underwent several surgeries and aggressive therapies. Months later, he eventually learned to walk confidently on prosthetics, advancing to running, and other sports a short time later. He was medically retired in May 2012. Matias is now a police officer for the Suffolk County Police Department in New York and a drill instructor at the Suffolk County Police Academy. Today, Matias tells his story of the events that unfolded on the day of his incident, the recovery process, what motivated him to become a police officer, how he overcame adversity as a double-amputee police officer, how he became a drill instructor, the blessings in disguise that came from his incident and the changes they are implementing in academies to move in the right direction to train the future officers the right way. Follow Matias on IG: @matias_n_ferreira If you like what you are hearing and want to stay in the loop with the latest in Street Cop Training, please follow our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/StreetCopTraining Don't forget to subscribe and rate the podcast, it truly helps! Sign up for classes here: https://streetcoptraining.com/course-list/Follow our podcast here: https://streetcoptraining.com/street-cop-podcast/    or    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/street-cop-podcast/id1538474515

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