Ken Rhodes goes on a ride to remember

APPLE VALLEY - When Ken Rhodes came back from Vietnam, some people called him and his buddies "baby killers."

"When we came home we were put aside and we weren't treated very well," said the former paratrooper, a two-time Purple Heart recipient. "I came back kind of messed up in the head like everybody else did. ... I was still in Vietnam when I was back here for several years."

Rhodes, who lives in Apple Valley, wants to get the attention of the American people to let them know that the veterans coming back from Iraq need their encouragement.

"They're young kids and some of them have never been away from home," he said. "And you give them a weapon and they have to go kill people. That's on there for the rest of their life and they'll never forget it. We need to help them, we need to put our arms out to them."

On April 4, the anniversary of the day he was shot down, Rhodes plans to head out from Santa Monica on U.S. Route 66 - and end up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his 70th birthday.

Along the way he'll be raising money for veterans of the Iraq War - as well as another cause dear to his heart - muscular dystrophy.

"I'm not protesting the war or anything like that," said Rhodes, a California native. "I just want to help. I want the people to support the troops even if they disagree with the war. I don't want to see what happened to the Vietnam vets happen to these guys."

Last summer, Rhodes decided to start training for the ride.

"I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a kid," he said.

The first month he just walked, then started riding 20 to 30 miles a day and working out with a personal trainer at the gym. He lost 53 pounds. On his 20-pound Trek bike, he now rides up to 100 miles in the warmer weather. And he does all of this with a pin in one leg, a prosthetic knee, and another plate under his left eye.

"This ride is all from my heart," he said. "I want to do it. I am going to do it."

On April 4, 1969, Rhodes was in the lead helicopter bringing ammunition and supplies to a special forces unit that was losing ground. During landing, the runway was being mortared and the helicopter went into a spin.

"We spin-crashed but we didn't burn," he said. "We crashed into the trees and everybody got messed up. I was covered with aviation fuel and I remember the medic cutting my flight suit off of me, and I was shot in the left leg."

Tommy Whiston, a Vietnam wartime veteran, met Rhodes at a Starbucks recently and offered to drive the RV that Rhodes will use.

"I just watched him over the months and I watched him work out and I go, wow, this guy's for real," Whiston said. "And his cause is so great."

Two of Rhodes' three children have muscular dystrophy, so Rhodes is raising money for awareness of the disease.

"These kids are real strong, they got hearts of gold," said Rhodes of his children, now grown with kids of their own and careers. "They don't pity themselves. Not at all."

Rhodes is searching for sponsors to help the cause. So far, he has signed on Horizon Technology from Tempe, Ariz., and Lifewave Energy Patches.

"If we do this right and we only make enough money to buy one leg or one arm for a veteran ... the whole trip is worth it," he said. "I'm hoping we do better than that."

Rhodes is in the process of setting up a charitable foundation, The Rhodes Foundation of America, which will distribute money to veterans and efforts to prevent and treat muscular dystrophy. He plans to file as a 501(c)(3), which will accept taxdeductible donations.