The bone-rattling rumble of more than 725 motorcycle engines woke up Nashua Sunday morning as the ninth annual Texas Roadhouse Bike Run to benefit Homes for Our Troops headed out on Route 101A for a 60-mile ride to Newington.

Sponsored by the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant, the annual ride raises money to build specially adapted houses for severely injured veterans. So far, the organization has helped put 112 vets and their families in new homes; 30 more houses are under construction.

Derry resident Brian Fowler, who was part of a Marine escort for the long line of bikes, said wounded veterans need a lot more attention and help than they have been getting over the past several years.

“It’s the current policies, and the media, 90 percent of whom ignore veterans,” he said.

Nashua resident Peter Gould, who was riding with his friend, Chuck Kusnierski of Methuen, Mass., also said Homes for Our Troops is stepping up to make up for the government, which has been stepping back.

“They want you when they want you, and when you’re done, and you need something, you’re on your own,” said Kusnierski. “That’s why we’re here.”

Ray “Hunter” Brunelle is president of the Nam Knights, a military and law enforcement motorcycle club based in Manchester.

“The government should be taking care of people, but it’s not, so we need to step in and do something,” he said.

Brunelle said he sees the same lack of care and attention for POWs and MIAs, which is why his club holds vigils the first Wednesday of every month in Manchester’s Veterans Park.

“If we don’t keep it up, no one will,” he said.

Many in the crowd Sunday were veterans, and they were happy to see that Marine Sgt. Tim Chambers had come to see the riders off.

Chambers won a lot of Harley hearts and minds a decade ago when he began a tradition of standing at attention for hours and saluting the huge Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Ride that takes place in Washington D.C., on Memorial Day.

“We are an out-of-sight, out-of-mind society,” Chambers told the crowd. “We are moving forward into a country that will forget. That’s why it’s essential for us to do what we are doing here today. We are here to give them a chance to move on.”

Chambers said the homes being built are the first step on the veterans’ road to recovery.

“Whether they have their legs or not, they can step forward,” he said. “We empower them and let them know there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished.”

btaormina@newstote.com