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I am Scott Whitmire

a U.S. military veteran living with ALS


Now five years later, I’m a quadriplegic who is on a ventilator and I haven’t tasted food in three years.

I AM ALS means I will exceed my expiration date! I was in the best shape of my life since my days in the USMC, and then I got a twitch. Now five years later, I’m a quadriplegic who is on a ventilator and I haven’t tasted food in three years. Young kids either cry or stare at me and adults yell in my ear like I’m dead. Or they ask, “What happened to him?” The people crying about being locked in their home over COVID-19 have no clue what locked in is really about. Try watching a Florida mosquito land on your nose, fill up, and pop on you while you’re powerless to do anything. It will definitely make you reconsider your big, bad Marine status. I AM ALS means that most of your life-long friends will start to disappear from your life, since you remind them that the world is not perfect. I AM ALS means that people are going to ask you at least three times a week about the new Right to Try law. And then I have to tell them that it has not helped me or other people with ALS I know. I AM ALS means that you are always going to be behind on the conversation, and even with all the eye gaze technology, people will always talk faster than you can talk. I AM ALS means that while I signed on the dotted line to possibly give my life for our country, I could have never imagined that it would be like this.


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