This is a YouTube video titled "Paraplegic and Vietnam Veteran Says His John Deere Equipment Gives Him New Life and Hope" featuring a personal narrative by Everett Cole, a double amputee Vietnam veteran, and Bernie, who helped adapt equipment for him. The video, created in March 2020, shares Everett's story of overcoming disability with the help of specially modified John Deere tractors and equipment, highlighting themes of resilience, independence, and support from family and community. The content is a monologue and interview style but does not include Francisco Jimenez as a speaker.
My name is Everett Cole. This is my lovely wife Alice. We've been married 49 years. Coming up July 3rd be 50. We have lived on this property since 1992. We bought it when we were young, married couple in 73 and always had a dream of living in the country. As I was growing up, my grandfather lived in a country town called Repton, Alabama. And of course he had a John Deere tractor. One day When I was 7, I went to see him and he called me, I said, come here, boy. And I climbed up on the tractor with him and he gave me a ride around on the tractor and I was hooked. From then on I said, someday I'm gonna have a John Deere tractor. But we moved here in 92 with the hopes and the idea of making this our retirement home. We have eight acres here and I've worn out several zero turn mowers from working the property around. And I said, well, I'm gonna get a John Deere one day. But in 2015, I saw a piece of property down the road for sale and I prayed hard about it and we were able to purchase that property, 62 acres. It's got a six acre lake on it and I use it for recreational purposes. Mostly it is a pine tree farm, but we have not decided to harvest the pine trees. So I said, I need a tractor. I need a John Deere tractor to keep this place up. Bush hog. And it's a lot of work when you got a small piece of equipment and got to go here and there and everywhere. And I had bought some other equipment, non John Deere. But I regretted it and wish I'd just gone to talk to Bernie. But we bought the land in January 2016. And so from that point on, it was about a year when I got the checker. I think about April, March, April 17, somewhere around there. But being a double amputee, how was I going to drive it? Well, I knew Bernie had. He's a man of many skills and so when I told him, I said, I'd like to get a John Deere tractor, but I don't know how to drive it. Maybe you can put something on there. I can do it with my hands. Well, I was a marine in Vietnam in 1969 and fortunately I stepped on a landmine and it took off my leg. The right leg busted my left leg. I kept this leg for 45 years till it got an infection in it and so they had to cut it off. So here I am with no legs. And the best thing that happened to me was meeting this lady the day I got my first artificial leg at a VA hospital. I say people issue me a leg and a girlfriend and subsequently a wife on the same day. That was 2-16-70. Well, she's a country girl. She grew up. Her father run a dairy farm with his dad. So I knew she was gonna be the kind of girl that I could deal with. And she is. She fishes. She'll field dressing deer for me. She knows how to do it all. And we had this dream of this. And then the farm was just icing on a cake for me. And I told her when we bought it, this might be the thing to keep me going 25 years. We bought the tractor. I think it was about April. Bernie delivered it and, oh, I was just on cloud nine because I kept rearing back my granddaddy's John Deere tractor. And here I am, now I've got one. Well, it didn't end there. I needed a side by side. So I bought one that has starts with a M. I think it's a mess. It lasted one year and then died. And not even the company can tell me how to fix it. I repaired everything they said could be wrong with it. So I said I should have bought a John Deere, a gator. And so I talked to Bernie and as it worked out, I've got my John Deere 835M. I don't know what the M stands for. I think it means manly. The service you get is even beyond what I thought. A lot of times when you buy a product and then you go back to the place, they don't care that much about you. But you know, John Deere, they back up what they say and they give service. And so I'm happy about that.
As Everett says, we've known each other for several years, Everett and Alice and also Alice's parents. And I went to church for probably 30 plus years. Met Everett through the years, he'd mentioned that one day he would like a tractor and we would talk from time to time about it. Well, Everett got serious. I got serious with Everett. He came up and I showed him a tractor. Well, Everett being a double amputee, we had some obstacles to overcome. I made a little thing on his tractor where he could actually go forward and backwards using his arms and didn't have to have his legs because he didn't have any. There were some other things we did. Everett, he also bought a set of pallet forks to help him pick things up. Very easy to take on and off. The tractors, it's just two pins. Later on, Everett was having trouble disconnecting his bush hog and his box blade. Everett and I got together, we got him a quick hitch. So now all he's got to do is back up, pick it up, throw the locks machines on there. The only time he's got to get off is to hook up that drive shaft. So that's made your life a lot easier, hasn't it?
Absolutely. You know, when I'm on the tractor, I don't feel like I'm handicapped or disabled. I don't look at myself like that. I feel like that the tractor and the gator gives me my freedom to get back into the world that I would normally have had I not lost the legs. And I think it's just the best thing that's come along besides my wife. And it is, it's a blessing to me. And I am just really in awe of being able to purchase. When I stepped on atlant mine in Vietnam, I was a high school dropout. I didn't have any future until I met her. And she's the one that's been the motivating factor about my success in life. I worked for the VA for 30 years, had a very good career with them. And that with my VA compensation has put us way beyond what I ever dreamed of having in our retirement. And we've been able to travel all 50 states, been on several cruises. It's just a blessing to be able to know that when I lay my head down tonight, I don't have to go to work anymore. But I do get up and go to work. But it's fun work. And sometimes I get on the tractor, driving down the road, I just kind of lose myself in thought. And I say, this is too much fun, but you can't handle too much fun, is that right?
