The first thing veterans do at Oscar Mike is learn to fly a plane – and then jump out of one.

“It doesn’t matter if they are completely blind. You are going to get into an airplane,” co-founder Noah Currier said.

Based in Poplar Grove and with businesses offices in Marengo, the Oscar Mike foundation was established on Nov. 11, 2011, by Currier and three other veterans.

Its name is military radio-speak for “On the Move,” Currier said. That mentality of being on the move led them to create the charity.

They started with an apparel company at his parent’s Marengo house, with proceeds going to the nonprofit organization. Oscar Mike now offers weeklong retreats to others who served in the military like Currier, who suffered life-altering injuries while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Currier is quadriplegic. The U.S. Marine veteran and Poplar Grove native was stationed at California’s Camp Pendleton when a car crash ended his military career and sent him on his current path.

Mason Symons also is quadriplegic as a result of a motorcycle crash. Symons, who served in the Pennsylvania National Guard, met Currier in 2010 at an adapted games event in Richmond, Virginia, and now works at Oscar Mike as a peer mentor.

“We started with smack talking about our suicidal moments and what put us there, then started talking about these nonprofits that were all, ‘Here are some football tickets; enjoy the game,’” Symons said.

The problem with that approach to veteran outreach is it’s very much one-and-done, Symons said, with no longterm follow up.

What Oscar Mike is trying to build is the camaraderie developed while when people push themselves and their teammates.

“We are here, and we are part of the family,” Symons said. Those who come through their program are encouraged to keep in touch with those they attended with, and to call when things get tough.

“Knock on wood – we have never lost anybody who has been through one of our programs” to suicide, Currier said.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2022, 17.6 veterans a day were dying by suicide.

“We are not the end-all and be-all for all of that ... but we are one valuable piece of that puzzle” of prevention, Symons said.

Having multiple “touch points” each year, putting veterans with disabilities together with others, helps reduce the suicide risk, Currier said, as does encouraging their participants as a team during the weeklong programs.

Their sessions at the Poplar Grove facility start with learning to fly – or at least taking the controls for a portion of the flight – at the Poplar Grove airport.

“Then we throw them out of an airplane” at the Chicagoland Skydiving Center, Currier said. The next day is off-roading on their 100-acre property on modified side-by-side UTVs with hand controls, allowing many veterans to maneuver the vehicles themselves.

Shooting, equine therapy at BraveHearts in Poplar Grove, and a modified triathlon finish up the week.

In the winter months, Oscar Mike is on the move again, bringing soldiers camping – what Currier calls adaptive expeditions – in the mountains of Colorado.

They also offer wheelchair rugby camps at the Boone County facility. Symons played for the USA national wheelchair rugby team at the 2024 Summer Paralympics. The team earned the silver medal.

Wheelchair rugby is a big part of their expansion plans, too, with hopes for a training facility on site.

Oscar Mike is at about 40% of a $20 million fundraising goal. The plan is to expand their current, 9,000-square-foot, 17-bed facility to 42,000 square feet of indoor courts with additional housing for the weeklong programs.

A new facility will increase their program capacity 10-fold, Currier said.

“We are limited by the physical size ... of the facility. We are limited by seasons and what we can do outdoors,” Currier said.

“Everybody that works with us agrees – the big mission is to help as many veterans as humanly possible,” he said.

Currier wants to see them hit $30 million via their fundraising efforts, allowing them to offer more to the veterans they serve.

He envisions a year-round facility that can help twice as many as they do now, built with their demographic in mind.

“It won’t be year one that we hit this, but we want to be closer to 1,000 [veterans] a year,” Currier said. “Step one is the facility. The rest is a stretch goal.”

More information on Oscar Mike is available at oscarmike.org/pages/foundation.