Stories For and About Living Your Truth
By Chanda Temple
Is there crying in ballroom dancing? There is if it involves Noah Galloway.
The veteran combat soldier and double amputee from Birmingham, Ala. had me in tears after I watched him dance his heart out on ABC’s 20th season opener of “Dancing with the Stars” tonight.
Disabled veteran Noah Galloway of Alabaster, Ala. lost his right leg and arm in a 2005 roadside bomb while serving in the Army in Iraq. Image courtesy Men’s Health.
By Chanda Temple
In October, Noah Galloway sat on the Today Show set waiting to see if he had won a national contest to appear on the November cover of Men’s Health magazine.
When it was announced that he was the winner, Galloway smiled. But when Galloway returned to his hotel room, doubt settled in. He thought the other two finalists, also appearing on live television with him, should have won. Then he wondered if he won because he was a disabled veteran. (He lost his right leg and arm in a 2005 roadside bomb while serving in the Army in Iraq. He went through a period of depression and heavy drinking before he used exercise to get a new take on life. He shared his story in his quest to win. More than 400,000 readers cast votes in the contest, which had nearly 1,300 entries. Galloway made it to the Top 3.)
“There was that moment, ‘Oh crap! I don’t deserve this,” Galloway recalled the way he felt after winning. But Men’s Health assured him that he was the right winner and there was no special treatment. “Finny (Akers), one of the other contestants, called me and congratulated me. He was like, ‘You earned this and you have every right to be happy about it.’ ”
Said Galloway: “Now I’m taking it all in. It’s been an incredible ride.’’
By Chanda Temple
Retired Army veteran Noah Galloway, 32, of Alabaster, Ala. is in the running for Men’s Health Magazine’s Ultimate Guy Search. Posing here in a kilt, he’s currently in first place. Online voting ends June 30, 2014.
Image by Jason Maris Photography
Editor’s Note: Noah Galloway won the magazine cover competition in October 2014 and was on the November 2014 cover. In March 2015, he will be one of the contestants on ABC’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ The show will debut on Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m. CST.
In 2010, Noah Galloway took a long hard look at himself and didn’t like what he saw.
It wasn’t that he had lost his left leg and left arm in a 2005 roadside bomb attack while serving in Iraq. (He had already come to terms with that after being mad about it for years.) Instead, he didn’t like how he’d let the tragedy eat away at his very soul.
Once an avid athlete and runner, he was no longer active. He’d allowed what happened to him in the blast, rob him of any desire to work out or even take a walk around the block.
“I had a beer gut,’’ said Galloway, of Alabaster, Ala.
“I feel at home when I’m challenged.” – Disabled Army Veteran Noah Galloway.
Image by ChristianTorresPhoto.com