Former president George W. Bush took part in the annual Warrior 100K mountain bike ride last week to honor service members injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This was the fifth year for the three-day event, which ended Saturday at Bush’s Prairie Chapel ranch near Crawford, Texas.
“It was phenomenal,”
Retired Army Sgt. Daniel Casara said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “I’m going to apply again next year and now that I have a bike to work with I’m going to work a little harder and do what I have to do to get back here.”
The event is part of the George W. Bush Institute’s military service initiative. This year’s ride included 14 veterans from previous years’ rides, riding alongside the president and 17 wounded veterans and their families, the Morning News said.
“We as veterans look for that camaraderie and we get that at events like this, but so many times the spouses are kind of on the outskirts,” Retired Army Staff Sgt. Spencer Milo told the Morning News. “It’s so nice to have the other spouses here because they kind of form their own camaraderie.”
The theme for this year’s event is the invisible wounds of war: post traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.
"We're here riding with people who got hurt, they're injured, and yet they refuse to allow their injury to consign them to a dull, meaningless life,"
Bush said, according to Fox News. "Some of the people we ride with have come back home with an injury that's treatable, but an injury that makes it really hard for them to see a positive moment and help. Not only we, but a lot of programs in the country, are dedicated to helping these warriors become the productive citizens we know they can be."
Twitter users shared mixed reactions to the event.
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