Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Alum Spotlight: PCC grad and proud Vet aims to compete in adaptive sports at 2025 Invictus Games

Photos and story by Misty Bouse

Portland Community College alum Christopher Bryde will compete in the Vancouver Whistler 2025 Invictus Games. Bryde recently earned five medals at the U.S. Marine Corps trials, qualifying in skiing, wheelchair rugby, rowing, and swimming events. 

Invictus organizers anticipate more than 500 competitors from over 20 nations to attend and compete in adaptive sports, including the new winter sports. Bryde is now training in London, England for the games while studying for his doctorate in English Language and Literature at St. Mary’s University Twickenham. At St. Mary’s, Bryde has been training for athletic competitions since 2021, with the goal of getting into the Invictus Games.

A devotee to strong social ties and outdoor activities for physical and mental health, the 36-year-old went to high school in Northeast Portland before he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2007 to 2012. 

“I enrolled at PCC, and have been a student ever since,” said Bryde, who earned associate degrees in Science and General Studies with a focus on Creative Writing. “Even after graduating in 2019, I have still taken some classes remotely when I have had extra time.”

While at PCC, Bryde pitched a documentary, “The Forgotten Battalion,” which was filmed in Tillamook County. It focused on the aftereffects of war and his unit, which has the highest suicide rate of any unit in the military. 

“A large part of the reason I have trained so hard for the Invictus Games in the first place is to show other veterans and people who struggle with suicidal ideation not to give up and to strive to do more and do better,” explained Bryde. 

He was an Infantry Machine Gunner, serving with the Second Battalion Seventh Marines in Afghanistan (2008) on an early mission to train the Afghan National Police. After being deployed for seven months, his gun truck ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). As a result, he spent four years in recovery at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.

“I was the only survivor,” he said. “I suffered extreme trauma to both of my legs, including third and fourth degree burns, which resulted in my left leg being amputated at the military hospital in 2011, and my right leg years later at OHSU after failed limb salvage.”

When he returned to Portland and enrolled at PCC, he credits his instructors for providing the support he needed to readjust to civilian life and cope with his new abilities. Based at the Rock Creek Campus, Bryde credits faculty George Tinker (psychology), Michelle Liccardo (painting), Richey Bellinger (ceramics), Karen Embry (writing), Elizabeth Knight (writing) and Lance Pynes (drawing).

“They helped keep me going during my struggles and were vital to my success at PCC,” he said. “I had a very difficult time as I studied while having multiple surgeries and recoveries, including amputation of my left leg and becoming a double amputee. I also struggled with dyslexia, dysgraphia, chronic pain, PTSD, and chronic depression.”

In his final year at PCC, he utilized the college’s Study Abroad Program to further explore math and statistics. This led him to London, where he had researched different universities and decided that St. Mary’s fit his aspirations. Bryde, who founded a fishing society there, applied for and was accepted into the university’s bachelor’s degree program in Creative and Professional Writing.

“I always wanted to be a writer, and my experience taking Karen Embry and Elizabeth Knight’s writing and poetry classes helped encourage me to go for it,” said Bryde, who is publishing his first novel this year about his experiences in Afghanistan and his recovery. “They were both very positive and supportive in my advancement as a writer.”