Blinded veterans gather for convention

When shrapnel exploded into Steve Baskis’ body, the soldier lost his eyesight but not his will to live in a suddenly different world.

A world without colors, without light and without the faces and objects that the sighted world takes for granted.

A soldier in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, Baskis was traveling in an MRAP in May 2008 in Iraq when an “explosively formed projectile” — a particularly lethal improvised explosive device — blew into the side of the armored vehicle. The sergeant sitting next to Baskis was killed and though body armor saved Baskis’ life, his extremities, neck and face were sliced open with tiny bits of metal.

“I remember coming to and I remember touching my eyes. Nobody really told me anything, but I knew it was a blast. I knew that my eyes were damaged real bad but I was hoping it was OK,” Baskis said Wednesday as he attended the Blinded Veterans Association national convention in Milwaukee.

At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Baskis learned things weren’t OK — he was blind. Baskis was 22.

One of his visitors at Walter Reed was a member of the Blinded Veterans Association, a group founded in 1945 to help service members returning from World War II. Other members of the Blinded Veterans Association, people who had lost their sight in Vietnam and other eras, befriended Baskis.

“I got to talk to them and learned that life was not over and that there was more to learn. That affected me a lot,” said Baskis, now 30.

Like many veterans groups, membership — currently around 8,500 — has been declining as World War II and Korean War veterans die. The Blinded Veterans Association opened its ranks about 15 years ago to veterans with vision impairments not related to their service. Now, most members are people who served in uniform but later lost their sight from disease or accidents not related to the military. Macular degeneration, diabetes and retinitis pigmentosa are among the leading causes of vision loss among association members.

Milwaukee hosted the convention 60 years ago and is again hosting the group through Friday at the Wisconsin Center. The 1956 convention was held in Schroeder Hotel, and this year’s members are staying in the same place, now called Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

This week, Blinded Veterans Association members are attending sessions on a variety of topics, including vision research by scientists; uses of medical marijuana; the latest technology; and tips for regional chapters to promote legislation affecting vision impaired veterans. The organization has also organized visits to a Brewers game and the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Among the exhibitors are vendors of a variety of innovative instruments. Among them: bar code scanners to determine the contents of food packages; audible health monitoring devices and scanners that can read medication bottles; and bioptic telescopes attached to eyeglasses that can take photos of printed matter and read it out loud to the wearer.

“Blinded veterans are a different group from other blind people. They bring with them unique problems,” including closed head injuries of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, said John Carter.

Carter was a Marine veteran of Vietnam when he lost his sight from a shotgun blast while on duty as a Milwaukee police officer during the 1967 city riots.

“They’re not your average, run-of-the-mill blind person. At one time they were warriors who kept the country free, but now we have to rely on people. In plain English, blindness can be a pain,” said Carter, 73.

Gary Traynor, 54, of Rice Lake joined the Air Force in 1982 as a welder and machinist working with F-16 jets and was medically retired as a master sergeant in 1999 because of cone-rod retinal dystrophy.

While Traynor joined the Blinded Veterans Association a while ago, and served as the group’s president, Carter is a recent member. The Wisconsin chapter, which has 153 members, has helped push through state legislation to provide timely educational materials for blind college students. When Traynor became a student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, there were few materials to help blind students in their classes.

The same was true for Carter when he attended Marquette’s Law School.

“They had nothing. You had to find someone to read the books or you had nothing,” said Carter, who became a prominent attorney for decades in Milwaukee. In 2015, Carter’s law license was suspended for three years for pocketing a client’s money that was later returned.

On Friday, Carter is proposing a resolution at the convention to ask the FAA to order U.S. airports to eliminate barriers to air travel for blind veterans. Carter said although airlines take care of blind passengers once they reach counters, airports are in charge of the area between the drop-off curb and check-in counters.

“To find my way into the building and to the counter is impossible if I’m alone. The cab driver can’t leave their cab and car drivers can’t leave their cars unattended,” said Carter.

With the political might of the Blinded Veterans Association, Carter is hopeful he can push awareness of access difficulties for blind travelers to the forefront.

But as Blinded Veterans Association membership drops, it has been difficult finding people who qualify to let them know about the organization. Many veterans who lose their sight later in life don’t know about benefits available to them, including training, adaptive devices and guide dogs, Traynor said.

“We have seen our numbers going down like other veterans groups,” said Traynor, whose black German shepherd guide dog Reuben sat by his side. “But when you come to a BVA convention, there’s a camaraderie you get with other veterans.”