Able Flight, a nonprofit group that offers flight training to people with disabilities, on Tuesday announced its latest round of scholarships, including its first awards to veterans who were wounded during their service in Iraq. Staff Sgt. John Borders and Tank Armor Crewman Rob Laurent both were injured by improvised explosive devices while serving in Iraq. Borders has already begun ground school. Both veterans expect to start flying later this year. Laurent said he hopes to “show others in similar situations that through hard work and opportunity we can do things that we, or others, thought we could never do.” The other new students are Jorge Urrea, who was paralyzed in a motor vehicle accident in 1992, and Sean O’Donnell, who was a high school senior when a motor vehicle collision left him paralyzed. Able Flight made its first awards last December, and so far has given away six scholarships.
