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Wounded soldiers' bonds include passion for cycling event
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Published: February 11, 2012
Updated: 02/11/2012 04:43 pm
LAND O' LAKES - David Broome and Roberto Cruz never have met, but they have much in common.
Both were corporals -- Broome in the Army National Guard; Cruz in the Army.
Both were wounded severely in Iraq in 2005 and wound up living about 10 miles apart in the Land 'O Lakes/Wesley Chapel area.
And both found inspiration taking part in the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride, a cycling event to help those injured in battle restore their physical and emotional well-being while raising awareness for others battling the damages of war.
For Broome, 25, "the moment" came during last year's Soldier Ride in Boston.
Nearly six years after the Humvee he was driving ran over an improvised explosive device while on patrol outside Forward Operating Base Ramadi, he found himself on a bicycle, in the middle of the two-day ride.
For years he had worked to overcome mental and physical injuries incurred during the Oct. 11, 2005, blast which sent a foot-long piece of hot metal shooting into his right thigh just above the knee. Eventually he learned to walk again, but the pain remained. So, too, did the mental scars. He had post traumatic stress disorder. He drank. He was depressed.
Then he heard about the Soldier Ride.
"I didn't really know what I was getting into," he said from the house in Land O' Lakes he shares with his fiancé, Elizabeth Bagley; their 13-month-old daughter, Isabella; and Bagley's family.
In the middle of the two-day, 39-mile ride in Boston, dealing with his own physical challenges and watching double amputees ride the same route using specially built bicycles with hand pedals, Broome had an epiphany.
"I stopped thinking about what was before and started thinking about what I could do now," he said.
Broome said he is excited about this year's ride, which returns to Tampa next week.
"Now I can pass along my experiences to people making their first ride," he said.
Bagley said the ride has made a huge difference in her fiance's life.
"I have definitely seen improvements," said Bagley, who is familiar with caring for injured people. Not only does she work at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, but she met Broome when her brother, Jose Pequeno, lost part of is brain after his Humvee was blown up in Iraq in 2006. Pequeno, one of the most severely war wounded ever to survive, was Broome's truck commander and was in the Humvee when Broome was injured.
On Aug. 14, 2005, Roberto Cruz, an Army corporal from Puerto Rico, was standing in the guard tower on a base in Tikrit when a sniper's bullet pierced his arm and lodged in his spine.
During his subsequent recovery at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Cruz, now 30, said his doctors told him he wouldn't walk again.
"I refused to believe it," he said, sitting on a couch in the Wesley Chapel home he shares with his girlfriend, Alejandra Acevedo, and their 5-year-old daughter, Layza.
Shortly after he was injured, Cruz said, he asked one of his brothers to move his legs. That set off tingling in his toes. Eschewing both the prognosis and the wheelchair he felt confined him, Cruz pushed himself. He learned to walk with a walker, then a cane. In 2010 he took part in his first soldier ride. Like Broome, he found it exhilarating.
"It was tough, but it was great to be out there," he said.
Next week's Soldier Ride will be his fourth.
Broome and Cruz said they look forward to meeting each other. "I can't wait," Cruz said.
Soldier Ride 2012 runs through Tampa from Thursday through Sunday, Feb. 19. The race is open only to those wounded in combat. For more information on riding, watching or contributing, go to http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/programs/sold....
haltman@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7629
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