Huffington Magazine Issue 53 | Page 49

PAUL MORSE/COURTESY OF THE BUSH CENTER BUSH AT PEACE different challenges and asks visitors to make their own decisions. He seems to mean it, however, when he says that people will reach their own conclusions and that he doesn’t mind if they still disagree with him. Bush still searched for a few more words when it came to the individual men and women who had suffered often gruesome injuries in the two wars. “You know, I don’t feel sorry for them, because they don’t feel sorry for themselves,” he said. HUFFINGTON 06.16.13 OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN bike trail, I found myself behind Dan Gade, a 38-year-old Army major who lost his right leg up to the hip when he was hit by an improvised explosive device in Ramadi, Iraq, on Jan. 10, 2005. As the riders ahead of us got tangled on an uphill section, bringing the peloton to a halt, Gade grumbled about stopping on an incline. He didn’t complain often, but for someone riding with one leg, getting held up on a climb was a challenge. The group ahead moved on, and soon Gade scooted off ahead of me, bouncing up and over bumps and ridges and around Army Sgt. First Class Billy Costello, 31, rides along a mountain bike trail on Bush’s ranch. Costello lost his right leg above the knee when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan in 2011.