By KEVIN HOWE of MontereyHerald.com
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Army Sgt. Angel Herrera was shot in the abdomen with a rocket-propelled grenade in 2008 while serving in Afghanistan. But that hasn’t stopped her from taking part in this year’s 450-mile, San Francisco-to-Los Angeles bike ride.
Herrera, 32, of Corning, was wounded while serving as a truck driver with a combat engineer unit. Now assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Hood, Texas, she said she got involved in the Ride 2 Recovery Golden State Challenge through a buddy there “who does this all the time.”
Riding recumbent in a three-wheeler, she paused on Del Monte Avenue in Marina to allow her teammates to wrap her aching knees with Ace bandages.
Other Warrior Transition Unit soldiers were among the 200 riders taking part in Ride 2 Recovery, which began Sunday and ends Saturday.
Army Pfc. Ashley Adkins of Columbus, Ohio, and Cpl. K.C. Chea of Seattle took leave from their duties in Schweinfurt, Germany, to come to California for the ride.
“I love to participate,” Adkins said.
“I got injured in Iraq and I couldn’t do anything physical for over a year,” Chea said. “One of our sergeants got us into doing this. My first ride was in Colorado, and I enjoyed it. There’s a lot of camaraderie, and you meet vets from past wars like Vietnam.”
Four former soldiers on the ride, all veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan, came to entertain the troops.
