Vets Put a Positive Spin on Healing

Army Staff Sgt. Heath Calhoun lost his legs in Iraq in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. But for the next 59 days, it’s his arms that he is worried about.

Hunched down on his silver hand cycle, Calhoun embarked on an epic journey Saturday. He and two other cyclists, one of them also a veteran wounded in Iraq, are attempting to ride from Marina del Rey to Montauk Point, N.Y., to raise money for people injured in the war who, they say, often struggle when returning to civilian life.

“Everyone else uses their legs, but if one of my shoulders blows out, I’m out of the ride,” said Calhoun, who pedals his 27-gear three-wheeler with his arms.

Calhoun, a squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division, was riding in a military convoy on Nov. 7, 2003, when his truck came under fire. A grenade blast left his legs so severely injured that they had to be amputated above the knees.

He spent seven months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where the arduous rehabilitation tested his will. It was his participation in sports that lifted him.

“Being with a bunch of other disabled folks [cycling], that’s rehab in itself,” Calhoun said shortly before a ceremony at Mothers Beach in Marina del Rey. Moments later, he choked up while thanking the crowd of supporters for encouraging him through his recovery.

“He had a lot more confidence” once he started riding, said Calhoun’s wife, Tiffany. “Before, he was down on himself all the time. But he’s very headstrong. He’s going to be great.”

The grueling route will not be easy, especially for Calhoun. The tour’s first half takes the riders through the Nevada desert and up the Rocky Mountains.

To prepare, Calhoun has been riding 20 miles a day for the last two months and binging on carbohydrates so his body has some fat to spare. His shoulders are already hulking joints that bulge under his blue-and-white bicycle shirt.

The idea for what is known as the Soldier Ride came from Chris Carney, a bartender and personal trainer from East Hampton, N.Y., who wanted to raise money for an injured local soldier who returned home early last year. After a benefit concert proved too costly, Carney suggested being sponsored for every mile he biked.

“It may have been the beer muscles talking,” said Carney, 34.

So last year, Carney rode 4,300 miles from Montauk to San Diego and was joined by Calhoun and Ryan Kelly, another injured veteran of Iraq, for part of the journey. They raised $2 million for the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit group that has donated hundreds of backpacks stocked with CD players, clothing and grooming kits to wounded soldiers in medical facilities. They also help them find career counseling and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Calhoun, who has retired from the Army and lives in Ft. Campbell, Ky., with his wife and two young children, will work full time for the charity after the bike ride.

Carney hopes to raise more money than last year on his second try, perhaps from corporate sponsors, though he recalled a time when an elderly woman rolled down her car window in Pennsylvania and handed him some dollars.

He said people donated money when organizers appeared on television or when they rolled into towns along the route.

“I’d walk into a bar in Nebraska in bicycle shorts and people would look and say, ‘What the heck?’ ” Carney said. “But as soon as I told them what I was doing, they’d be buying me beers.”

Carney joked that you could ride across the Midwest without losing weight because most towns had only fast-food restaurants or truck stops. In the end, he lost 20 pounds off his 215-pound frame.

One benefit to holding Soldier Ride this year, Carney said, is that it’s not a presidential election year.

“Last year, liberals thought we were pro-war and conservatives were saying we were exploiting the troops,” Carney said. “They were losing the big picture -- helping these guys out.”

Carney said that even the riders and organizers have differing opinions about the war in Iraq.

If he could, Kelly, the third rider on the tour, said he would be back in Iraq, where he was charged with helping build schools and hospitals with the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion.

On July 14, 2003, Kelly’s convoy was attacked with an improvised explosive device.

“A piece of shrapnel clean took my leg off,” said Kelly, 24. “I’ve got the shrapnel at the house. It’s 4 inches long. My wife framed it with my Purple Heart.”

He spent 13 months at Walter Reed, where intensive therapy helped him walk again with a carbon fiber leg.

The one he is wearing for the bike ride was originally designed for female amputees who wanted to wear high heels The ankle joint angles down, which gives Kelly more torque when he pedals.

“It’s called a runway foot,” said Kelly, of Prescott, Ariz. “I’m set for Halloween.”

Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA, attended the Soldier Ride send-off and said sports was a crucial method for instilling self-esteem in injured veterans. His organization travels to military hospitals, teaching patients to ski, canoe, kayak and cycle.

Bauer, who lost his left leg to a grenade 36 years ago in Vietnam, said veterans have benefited from rapid improvements in medical technology in the last two decades. Bauer, who rides one-legged, does not wear a latex sleeve or a prosthetic leg.

“My leg, by comparison, looks more like a Civil War injury,” he said.

The bikers will be joined by supporters on various segments of the journey. They will always be within distance of a support vehicle driven by one of Carney’s rugby friends. All of them were aware of the heat wave in Southern California.

“I’m wearing sunscreen on my head,” said Kelly, who sports a buzz cut.

The plan is to ride for two-hours, then rest as needed, then ride another two-hour shift and so on.

Saturday’s itinerary was one of the shortest, beginning with the symbolic dipping of the bicycle tires in the Pacific before heading to Interstate 15. Calhoun will return to Los Angeles today to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium.

“A lot of buddies in Iraq are not coming home,” Kelly said. “So my goal is to ride every square inch of this route.”

Donations can be made at Soldier Ride’s website, www.soldierride2005.com.