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Cadet who lost leg keeps piloting dream alive

SAN ANTONIO — Cadet Matt Pirrello would jump out of an airplane again in a heartbeat. And he hopes to get that chance someday.

Seven months after a parachute accident that severed his right leg and broke his left one, Pirrello is going forward with his life — learning to walk again here at the Center for the Intrepid and Brooke Army Medical Center, determined to get back to college and earn his Air Force commission.

“Becoming an officer is a goal I’ve had, and I don’t see why this should stop me,” said Pirrello, 20. “Plus, I’m pretty competitive. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and doing what I have to do.”

Last summer, after wrapping up his first year at Ohio University, Pirrello went to the Air Force Academy for the basic parachute training course.

On June 25, Pirrello had five jumps to make. The first one went well and Pirrello climbed back into the UV-18B Twin Otter with nine others for Jump No. 2.

As the plane flew over the drop zone, Pirrello stepped out and flew the parachute canopy within allowable limits until setting up for his final approach to the landing point, according to a report by Air Force investigators.

But Pirrello was so focused on where he was supposed to land that he forgot to monitor the windsocks, which would have shown crosswinds from the west. Not monitoring the windsocks, according to the report, led to “under-control of the canopy and failure to correct for winds to the west, which is a procedural error that was a major factor in the mishap.”

By radio, the landing controller advised Pirrello to go to the west, but the cadet couldn’t make the course adjustment in time, according to the report.

“I don’t remember what happened once I pulled my chute,” Pirrello said. “There was a shift in the wind to the west. I didn’t correct enough. By then, I was at the mercy of the winds.”

Pirrello slammed into a windsock pole and the impact severed his right leg at mid-thigh. He broke his left leg — compound fractures between his knee and ankle — when he hit the ground.

“I remember feeling the large impact of hitting something,” he said. “I was conscious the whole time, but I don’t remember feeling any pain.”

He asked the paramedics how many legs he had left.

“I kept trying to sit up and they kept pushing me back down so I couldn’t see,” Pirrello said. “They finally told me I had one left, and I thought, ‘I can still do this with one leg.’”

When Pirrello woke up in the hospital, he was surrounded by his parents and sisters.

“He woke up and talked about how great it was to jump and how we should do it, too — just don’t tell mom,” said his sister, Alicia Pirrello.

Pirrello stayed in the hospital nearly a month before he was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center.

He has had eight surgeries. A rod and four screws hold together his left leg. He lost 50 pounds, dropping to 120. Today, he weighs in at 160.

And on Oct. 21, he took his first steps.

Pirrello wears a prosthesis and uses a cane, mostly so he doesn’t hurt his left leg again. He walks back and forth from the Fisher House to the nearby Center for the Intrepid every day for physical therapy and can walk by himself for a quarter-mile during the sessions.

Right now, Pirrello is focused on getting in shape for the Warrior Games, set for May 16-21 in Colorado Springs, Colo. He hopes to make the 25-member Air Force team, which will compete in the Olympic-style contest against wounded, ill and injured troops from the other services.

If all goes well, Pirrello said he hopes to move back to Ohio in the summer and return to college in the fall.

“Everyone’s optimistic about the progress I’ve made so far,” Pirrello said.

His family is confident he will accomplish his goals.

“Knowing Matt, I know this won’t stop him,” Alicia Pirrello said. “All of us realize that we’re blessed to have our brother.”

Pirrello had hoped to become a fighter pilot; now, he just wants to be a pilot. He’s even open to flying a remotely piloted aircraft.

He can make that decision later, though.

“No. 1 right now, I want to earn my commission first and go from there,” he said.