Benjamin Breckheimer gets to be 1st Purple Heart recipient to climb Seven Summits

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A few months in the past, CBS 58 launched you to Army veteran and Menomonee Falls indigenous, Benjamin Breckheimer. He established a aim to grow to be the to start with Purple Coronary heart receiver to climb the greatest mountain on all seven continents. This month, he established out to end that journey.

“It truly has not strike me nevertheless, that I did this,” Breckheimer mentioned via a zoom call from his resort home in Anchorage, Alaska.

He realizes it can be not generally in lifestyle that you get to be the really very first to execute one thing. But by standing on the summit of Mt. Denali in Alaska — the best peak on the North American continent — Breckheimer achieved that objective.

“It was these kinds of a perfect day. It was totally wonderful. We had been genuinely blessed with such wonderful weather conditions,” he claimed of the moment.

Breckheimer expended the thirty day period of June in Alaska with his team, planning for the climb. It can be a person mountain, but the end result of an epic journey.

“It took a lot for me to get this much the previous 7 yrs and I would not have been capable to do it without having the aid I’ve experienced,” he explained.

Breckheimer was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, and he was severely wounded in an IED explosion. He experienced to be airlifted out with a perforated eardrum, fractured vertebrae and severe leg injuries. His restoration took him 4 several years, and to the least expensive of lows.

But also to the optimum of highs. He turned to climbing to assistance with his actual physical, psychological and emotional recovery.

“And it really is type of cliché, but it is really definitely about the journey and not the summit. And the journey has just been genuinely incredible,” he said.

That journey has taken him all over the earth. To the prime of Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Russia, and Aconcagua in South America. He also lifted his Menomonee Falls Substantial College flag in Antarctica. By reaching the summit of Mt. Denali, he results in being the really initial combat wounded veteran to entire the 7 Summits.

He stated he may perhaps now be performed with mountain climbing.

“Actually, large mountain expeditions for me are likely around,” he stated with a laugh.

Time will convey to, but Breckheimer mentioned his intention is to now assistance other veterans reach the heights he is reached. He is especially concentrating on fundraising initiatives to assist the 1st woman Purple Heart receiver get to the leading of Mount Everest. He is working with 1 Workforce Colgan Foundation on the effort. To uncover additional info, just check out www.oneteamcf.org.

To celebrate his accomplishment, Breckheimer is investing some time with spouse and children, discovering Alaska.

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