CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the last three years, a local veteran has been making a difference in the lives of hundreds of other former servicemembers' lives through his archery foundation.
The Darkhorse Archery Bow Shop and Range in Orange Grove is more than just a place where people can practice their aim. Marine Corps veteran and owner Justin Rokohl started his business to remember another fellow marine.
After Rokohl lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan in 2008, his best friend and Orange Grove native Colton Rusk, was with him every step of the way.
When 3News last spoke with him, he let us know about the wheelchair accessible house he was gifted from the Helping a Hero foundation.
Rokohl caught up with us this week to talk about his Darkhorse Archery veteran foundation and how he started it in memory of his best friend Colton Rusk.
"He helped me do all of my physical therapy, " said Rokohl, remembering his late friend. "He saw burned and triple amputees, quadruple amputees, double amputees, people disfigured for life. He knew about death because I told him about death and what I experienced. And he still joined anyway, and he didn't have to."
In 2010, Colton was killed while serving in Afghanistan. Now, through Rokohl's Darkhorse archery veteran foundation, he's able to keep Colton's memory alive by naming his veteran foundation after the call sign of Colton's battalion.
"He was very proud of Darkhorse, so we wanted to kind of keep that name and what that meant to him. We decided the best way that we could think of to help was getting guys into archery."
"I had noticed the benefits that I had got from it, the mental and physical benefits. I thought that I'd get a few of my veteran buddies to start into it. That's kind of how I started it before it had a name."
Through donations, Darkhorse merchandise purchases and their annual archery tournament, the foundation has been able to connect hundreds of veterans with bows around the county – something that Rokohl says he thinks his best friend would be proud of.
"Out of all the stuff we could've done, I think he would be really happy with this. But the ultimate goal is to make Colton and Darkhorse a household name and just to keep his legacy alive and reach out to as many people as we can."
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