Photo By Capt. Erick Schneider-Cuevas | Lt. Col. Jeremy Tillman celebrates during a bike ride on Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Daily...... read more read more
FORT SILL, Okla. – Lt. Col. Jeremy Tillman, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment and a Purple Heart recipient, is participating in the Pacific Coast Bike Race. The race begins Sept. 8 in Portland, Oregon and ends in San Diego, California, spanning roughly 1,500 miles.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Tillman. “It will be interesting, enlightening, as well as exciting and challenging to see how my mind and spirit and body react during the race.”
For Tillman, the race is part of his ongoing journey of physical, spiritual, and mental recovery from his injuries sustained when we he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq.
Tillman was assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment in early February 2007, and became a Platoon Leader in 1st Platoon, Bravo Battery that following May. The brigade was one of the first surge units to deploy to Iraq. The unit would typically conduct a sequence of patrols to meet with local leaders and community members and work with the local Iraqi army and local police to ensure stability in the area. At night, they conducted raids to apprehend military targets or uncover weapons caches.
On Nov. 24, at around 9 p.m., Tillman and his platoon were preparing for a patrol.
“My interpreter and I exited the Humvee that we were in while my platoon sergeant was establishing a security perimeter. It was shortly after I exited the Humvee, maybe a couple of minutes, that 40 pounds of homemade explosives were detonated with a cell phone,” said Tillman. The explosives were packed inside a nearby electrical box.
Tillman sustained critical injuries to both legs and fragmentation injuries along the left side of his body. “I thought I was a goner,” he remembered.
Tillman was medevac’d to the primary hospital in the green zone area of Baghdad, where they performed the first of what would be 15 surgeries over a year and half.
“I remember waking up in the hospital the day after, and as I came to […] I remember thinking ‘thank God. I’m just so happy I have all my limbs and I’m here. I have a second chance,’” said Tillman.
Tillman found (and still finds) joy in remaining physically active. Throughout his multiple surgeries and physical therapy appointments, he focused on regaining the ability to engage in physical activities, like running. Over the course of a little over a year, Tillman progressed from the hospital bed to a wheelchair, a wheelchair to a walker, a walker to crutches, and finally, in February 2009, from crutches to running.
Tillman ran for the first time since the incident while he was a student at the Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. “It was a great feeling because I enjoy remaining active,” he said.
Over time, he increased the intensity and frequency of his physical activity. “I think I am back, and have even surpassed, where I was physically before I was wounded,” Tillman said.
But Tillman’s road to recovery was far from over. While he healed physically, he still had intangible injuries to contend with.
“As time went on, I began to learn [my recovery] wasn’t just the physical aspect. I was struggling mentally and spiritually. I wasn’t able to sleep well, and those problems manifested over time.”
In conjunction with therapy and counseling, Tillman was able to heal mentally and spiritually through physical activity. He finds emotional and spiritual fulfillment in pushing himself to create goals and develop plans to achieve them, enjoying the process throughout. His upcoming challenge: to complete the Pacific Coast Bicycle Race.
The Pacific Coast Bicycle Race (PCBR) is a fully self-supported race. Racers must provide their own lodging, food, and rest from start to finish. Participants are not allowed to reserve hotels in advance, and instead must sleep in their own tents or book lodging along the route the day of. For Tillman, this self-sufficiency is all part of his spiritual and emotional fulfillment from the event.
PCBR is held by Get Some Cycling, a nonprofit public charity that aims to promote the love of cycling by holding top tier cycling events and contributing to organizations that provide adaptive style bicycles to the differently abled.
Get Some Cycling holds four major races in the U.S. ranging 750 to 3,600 miles, attracting cyclists from around the world, such as Germany and the United Kingdom. The organization has teamed up with Outdoors for All, another nonprofit organization that provides a variety of adaptive sporting equipment and services for children and adults with physical disabilities. Their programs cover cycling, mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, and rock climbing, to name a few. Get Some Cycling donates funds to Outdoors for All to help provide these programs.
Curtis Sutherland, one of the founders of Get Some Cycling, hopes to expand the organization’s list of partner organizations. Sutherland, a Navy veteran, is particularly interested in partnering with a veteran support organization to provide adaptive bicycles to wounded veterans. He knows firsthand the mental and emotional benefits of cycling and other physical activities.
“Cycling gives you time to yourself to process things in your life,” said Sutherland. He too has faced PTSD, stemming from his time working in a maximum-security prison after his departure from the Navy. When his doctors tried to prescribe him medication, he said, “my medication is my bicycle.”
“If you need an outlet, get into cycling. You’ll see things you don’t typically see,” said Sutherland.
To find more information on PCBR, or any of Get Some Cycling’s other races, visit getsomecycling.org.
Note: This article is not intended to imply official or federal endorsement of Get Some Cycling or Outdoors for All.
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2024 13:01 |
| Story ID: | 480062 |
| Location: | FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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