Constable: Naperville Navy captain leads Warrior Games

Leading squadrons of warriors toward a goal turned into a career for Navy Capt. Brent Breining, who grew up in Naperville. As pilot of a twin-engine, electronic warfare aircraft, Breining flew 93 combat missions over Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He's made 623 successful landings on aircraft carriers. But nothing compares to the experience of directing the Department of Defense Warrior Games, where participants include a Marine swimmer who lost both legs and one arm to a bomb.

"As he was moving across the pool, people were standing and cheering," says Breining, 49, director of this year's Warrior Games. The sporting events are free to the public. They begin Friday and run through July 8.

The Opening Ceremony, hosted by former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, begins at 7 p.m. July 1 at Soldier Field, with concerts by Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson. Tickets for this event start at $30 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster.

The Warrior Games feature competition in eight Paralympic-style sports and will attract about 265 athletes carrying the wounds, injuries and illnesses of their military service.

"Last year, the Warrior Games were so impactful that I couldn't wait to participate again as the master of ceremonies for the 2017 games," Stewart said in statement posted on dodwarriorgames.com.

"You're going to be transformed and inspired," Breining predicts. "And you'll walk away a different person."

After winning two gold medals in last year's games, Aurora University student Ryan Shannon says he wants to walk away from this year's games for the last time on his injured left leg.

"I hope to get it amputated before the end of the year," says Shannon, 30, who medically retired from the Navy last year and has been dealing with pain and paralysis since he broke his foot while on duty in Hawaii. He also deals with the post-traumatic stress disorder he has experienced since rushing into a burning submarine and fighting the fire for more than 10 hours. A prosthetic leg made for running should make the Morris native even faster.

"It's not about winning," says Shannon, who ran track in high school and college, before he breaks into a grin and admits, "but for some of us it is."

Every story is different and powerful, says Breining. Athletes with missing limbs, disfiguring burns, paralysis and other obvious injuries compete alongside military men, women and veterans with "hidden wounds" such as PTSD and depression, he says.

"I've been to that low bottom," says Shannon, who gives credit for his recovery to his wife, Jasmine; their sons Kamden, 4, and Kaeden, 3; his service dog, Chelsea (named after the "Chelsea Dagger" song played after every Blackhawks goal at home); and the chance to run, swim and play "seated" volleyball, where his reach earned him his "Arms" nickname. "Warrior Games gives us purpose again. I don't get to feel normal very often."

As transformative as it is for the wounded military athletes from all the branches of our service as well as from the United Kingdom and Australia, the Warrior Games can improve life for spectators, too, Breining says.

"Children need role models these days," he says, noting that competitors "don't give up" and show what the human spirit can overcome in spite of challenges. "There's so much inspiration."

Bringing the Warrior Games to Chicago stirs a lot of emotions for Breining,

"It has a special affinity for me," says Breining, who did much of the planning at meetings in Chicago's Aon Center, formerly the Standard Oil Building, where his dad worked for 35 years.

Breining graduated from Naperville North High School in 1986 and the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1990 before making his career in the Navy, where he served as a pilot and worked in intelligence and counterterrorism operations. He received a master's degree in public administration in 2002 from Auburn University. He and his wife, Nicole, a pharmacist, have a 15-year-old son, Joshua.

"I've commanded a squadron," says Breining, who says he finds that same satisfaction in his post as director of the Warrior Games. "This job for me is the essence of taking care of sailors. Very few jobs in D.C. can you see the outcome of your efforts."

Working with wounded, injured and ill military members can be humbling, Breining says.

"We are all damaged, not broken," says Shannon, who expects to graduate this December from Aurora University with a degree in business administration.

Now living with his family in Coal City, he has started his own charity, MusicRXFoundation.org, which provides musical instruments, lessons and support to military and first-responders who could benefit from the positive and healing effects of music.

Breining will move into the next chapter of his life Aug. 4, when he retires from the Navy. A licensed pastor with Foursquare International, he says he plans to increase his work with the evangelical Pentecostal Christian church.

Whatever he does, Breining says, he'll take the memories of Warrior Games athletes with him.

"Sometimes you get dwarfed by their stories," Breining says. "You celebrate moving forward."

Shannon says he is inspired by his fellow athletes.

"It gives you perspective," Shannon says. "I guarantee traffic in Chicago won't feel so bad when you are leaving Warrior Games."