Seventy-eight veterans made their way riding bicycles from Fort Hood all the way to Waco Thursday.
The men and women are on the fourth day of their six-day challenge, and they said it's been a long, but therapeutic journey.
"I was in Desert Storm and I got PTSD from the people that I lost there," Douglas Hubbard, a Fort Hood U.S. Army veteran, said.
From war to his battle with PTSD, Hubbard has been searching for a solution...
"I fell into a dark depression when my wife got hurt, so she decided to seek out Ride 2 Recovery and Project Hero for me so she could get her husband back," Hubbard added.
And that she did. Hubbard said his bike is his therapist and through riding with other veterans the sense of brotherhood has returned.
"It's just like at war time, we don't leave anybody behind. We start our missions together, and we finish our missions together. And this is like a mission for us," Hubbard said.
The veterans left Fort Hood and their fellow soldiers and headed to visit some of their youngest supporters. The students at Lakewood Elementary School in Belton celebrated Old Glory Day Thursday.
"Teach children about patriotism, and about what it means to show respect for those that have served and the meaning of the flag," Judy Schiller, the Principal at Lakewood Elementary School, said.
"I love coming to Texas because the support is amazing, all the children out with the flags and riding through Fort Hood, it does wonders to have everyone out cheering us on as we're riding on our journey," John Morlock, a Marine Corps veteran and participant of Ride 2 Recovery, said.
The veterans are staying in Waco Thursday night, but will be back on their bikes headed to the George Bush Library in College Station bright and early Friday before finishing their trip in Houston.
Thirty-two of the seventy-eight veterans are sporting a new PTSD monitor, the Texas A&M Hero Track device. It looks like a watch and is tracking their anxious moments and relaxed moments while riding. Ride 2 Recovery participants are the first to try them out.
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