Riding for life
Posted On: Friday, Apr. 3 2009 05:17 AM
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily HeraldFORT HOOD – Thursday's wind gusts of 30 miles an hour and more didn't stop the bicycling soldiers.
They might have slowed them down a bit, but they certainly didn't stop them. These were men and women who survived war and the hardest things that accompany it: pain, suffering and loss. After all these soldiers have experienced, what was a little wind?
Wounded warriors from across the country, many of them amputees, began a portion of the Texas Road 2 Recovery bicycle tour Thursday morning at Fort Hood. They were joined by three Vietnam veterans and riders from the Army Cycling Team.
The group was led on post and to III Corps headquarters by Directorate of Emergency Services personnel. There, they were greeted by a crowd of cheering, flag-waving soldiers, some of them from Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center's Warrior Transition Unit, and civilian employees.
Programs for soldiersRoad 2 Recovery is a program that aims to "help make a difference in the lives of wounded warriors by assisting with their mental and physical rehabilitation programs," according to information from its Web site.
Staff Sgt. Nieves Rodriguez is one of several Fort Hood soldiers who participated in the ride, which is a series of routes from San Antonio to Dallas. The Beeville native is a former Marine who joined the Army in October 1997. He was in Iraq for his second deployment in 2005 when his Humvee was hit by a speeding car near Tikrit. The truck flipped over and a .50-caliber gun cut off his arm at the elbow and shattered his femur.
Rodriguez ended up at Fort Hood, first at its Noncommissioned Officers Academy and then at the Warrior Transition Unit at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center. He was eventually re-assigned to the U.S. Operational Test Command at West Fort Hood after meeting Command Sgt. Maj. Lawrence Wilson, its former senior noncommissioned officer.
His life would go on and he had to show others that theirs would, too, he said during an interview with the Herald in November, so he starting bicycling.
The 36-year-old has participated in 10 rides with the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization dedicated to honoring and empowering wounded warriors, according to its Web site.
The project's purpose is "to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, to help severely injured service members aid and assist each other and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of severely injured service members."
Road 2 Recovery is part of the nonprofit Fitness Challenge Foundation and Veterans' Administration Volunteer Service Office. They benefit mental and physical rehabilitation programs that feature bicycling, according to information from its Web site.
The first time he hopped on a bicycle for an organized ride, Rodriguez rode 50 miles.
"It was just the greatest thing ever," he said in November. "You're alone in your thoughts."
Thursday's ride was Rodriguez's first with Road 2 Recovery. He found out about the Texas tour during a ride in California, and said it was another great way to raise awareness for wounded veterans.
Rodriguez rides a bicycle developed specifically for him by a Temple shop, Sun Country Bicycles. Those with prosthetic arms and legs also had modified bicycles to make riding easier. Those without legs rode bikes with hand pedals.
Rodriguez said it was motivating to ride alongside soldiers without limbs.
"When I'm struggling with head wind, I think of them," he said Thursday. "It makes me want to push that much harder."
Moving onSgt. Robert Mathews, a soldier Rodriguez recruited last year to ride, said they show other wounded men and women how to get their lives back and continue forward. Too many choose to sit at home and think about their problems, Mathews said. Yet, there are people who are 10 times as worse – those with no legs pushing others to go on.
"If these guys can, I can, too," Mathews said in November of moving past his injuries. "It doesn't change who you are."
Thursday's group fought against strong winds while riding onto post. After taking off from III Corps headquarters and passing hundreds of cheering students at Meadows Elementary School, they left post and headed toward Waco.
The gusts that met the wounded warriors head-on just an hour before were at their backs – just one more thing behind them as they moved on with their ride, recovery and lives.
Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at
astair@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7547.
READ MORE
Thursday's Road 2 Recovery tour passed by Meadows Elementary School on Fort Hood. To read about how and why Meadows' 750 students honored the riders, read next week's Fort Hood Herald.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Learn about Road 2 Recovery at www.road2recovery.us.com
Learn about the Wounded Warrior Project at
www.woundedwarriorproject.org.