Benefield: Veterans riding in support of veterans

When Bob Rogers, 81, rolled into the parking lot of the now shuttered Lucas Wharf Restaurant and Bar in Bodega Bay on an incredibly blustery Tuesday evening, he had to circle the parking lot a few times.

So quick was local team Elder Eagles in relaying a United States flag from Westport, north of Fort Bragg, to Bodega Bay for their leg of a 50-day military veterans project, that their greeting committee from national nonprofit Team Red White and Blue wasn’t quite ready for them.

“I’m just going to go around again,” Rogers said with a laugh. “I know when I’m not wanted.”

It was a lighthearted moment amid a moving event.

Team Elder Eagles, average age 79, covered more than 120 miles in fairly grueling cycling conditions Tuesday to do their portion of a nine-state, 4,000-mile, 50-day relay that will end on Armed Services Day May 20 in Atlanta.

There, the flag that each of participants have carried while cycling, hiking, running, or even riding horseback, will be unfurled in the Braves’ ballpark.

The annual effort is called the Old Glory Relay.

“The finish line will be the pitcher’s mound that day, so it should be a spectacular day,” said Bill Sauber, 74, of Sebastopol and team captain of the Elder Eagles.

The Old Glory Relay, a key event for nonprofit Team RWB, works to honor veterans while connecting them with physical fitness programs and events with the aim of keeping vets healthy — both physically and mentally.

The organization, which has chapters in all 50 states, hosts things as varied as monthly fitness challenges and seasonal outdoor backpacking trips, as well as annual events like the Old Glory Relay.

“At some point, getting yourself reconnected into your physical health is a bridge to positive mental health,” said Scott Stratton, associate director with Team RWB.

Stratton was on hand to meet and greet team Elder Eagles in Bodega Bay Tuesday evening.

“So what we want to do is meet veterans where they are at, in their own communities, with their own network whether that’s family, friends or other veterans, get them out of the house, get them on the road, put their running shoes on … and reconnect and find that sense of purpose they had when they served,” he said.

It’s about more than physical fitness.

Backers of Team RWB say physical fitness is directly linked with emotional and mental well being.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 6,146 veterans died by suicide in 2020, or an average of 16.8 per day. That was 343 fewer than in 2019.

Approximately 5,000 veterans are hospitalized in psychiatric units every month, according to the VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.

“ (Team RWB) recognized that there was an issue with suicide, early death and suicide,” Sauber said.

And for many, physical activity in community with other veterans is a way to deal with some of the traumas that veterans feel.

“Physical activity and camaraderie, and getting together with other people,” Sauber said. “Where you know no one is going to judge you and you have a common bond.”

Team RWB has a four-star rating with Charity Navigator which says donors can give “with confidence.”

Sauber, who has long supported Team RWB, said when he realized this year’s route ran through Sonoma County, he jumped.

And when he later realized that this local leg of the relay falls on the anniversary of a high school friend’s death while serving in Vietnam, it all felt deeply moving.

“That just made this ride that much more poignant for me,” he said.

So Sauber, an accomplished athlete with 18 marathons under his belt (including Boston) and two full-length triathlons (including Ironman in Kona) plus myriad other highflying athletic accolades, signed up to lead a day of the relay.

And then he pulled his pals in. Every member of Team Elder Eagles is a vet.

“This is a perfect fit for me,” said John Cottle of Mendocino, who at 71 is the most junior member of the squad. “Hopefully it’s inspiring to other vets that it’s never too late to start.”

Cottle, a physician who began as an Army medic in Vietnam, said physical activity is an incredible balm for both physical and mental pain.

So Team RWB’s mission is right up his alley.

After an injury prevented him from running, Cottle took up cycling, predominantly mountain biking. He’s never stopped (despite sustaining a broken leg late last year).

“I found it was a tremendous thing for anxiety and depression,” he said. “Medication works but endorphins work too and they have much better side effects … it’s a tremendous stress reliever. You can be having a bad day and you go outside, go for a walk, for a bike ride and do something and somehow the world is better.”

A 2015 Stanford University study supports this message.

The study found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural area, as opposed to a busy urban setting, showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression.

So those Team RWB backpacking trips and outdoor excursions? There’s science behind it.

Roy Cratty, 90, had the shortest portion of Tuesday’s relay, but perhaps the most moving.

Cratty received the flag from Rogers and walked a short distance before being embraced by Sauber.

Cratty, a Marine, lost his right leg and the use of one arm when a land mine exploded underneath him when he was on patrol in Korea.

“I remember I was leading a patrol out through an outpost and we had gone about two miles when I hit the land mine that they had planted there and it blew the hell out of me and I lost a leg and use of my arm but other than that I’m all right,” Cratty said.

Cratty heaped kudos on this fellow teammates who carried the flag in a clear, plastic backpack down the California coast, all in an effort to support fellow veterans.

Something like the Old Glory Relay goes a long way in bringing vets’ physical and emotional needs out into the light, Rogers said.

“Even if they don’t have a physical loss like Roy did, certainly there was PTSD which our fathers, my dad, didn’t talk about those kinds of things,” Rogers said. “Now at least it’s brought out into the open a little bit. The mental damage in a lot of ways can be worse than the physical damage.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.