Veteran, struggling with PTSD, disappears for a month to hike Appalachian Trail
WNCN
Nate Rodgers
Published: September 11, 2015
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — It pains Michael Kirkpatrick that his need to heal ended up worrying many loved ones.
The 29-year-old worked as an Army infantryman for nearly three years.
Like many others before him, he experienced the death of a fellow colleague.
“When they just disappear and you just find out they’re gone that’s a hard thing to get through,” Kirkpatrick said Thursday.
For Kirkpatrick, returning to civilian life was a challenge. In addition to struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, he recently separated from his wife and kids.
“I was in this hole in the ground, where I guess it felt like it kept getting deeper, debt, not seeing the kids and not being able to talk to them as much as I want,” Kirkpatrick said.
read more here
Showing posts with label Appalachian Trail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Appalachian Trail. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2015
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Retired National Guards Iraq Veteran looking for lost soul
Orange veteran looking for lost soul during hike
The Recorder
By ANITA FRITZ
March 28, 2014
ORANGE, Mass. (AP) — It was 1948, three years after the end of World War II, when Earl Shaffer, a U.S. Army veteran from Pennsylvania, hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, something no one else had done to that point.
More than 14,000 people have hiked the entire trail since Shaffer, and U.S. Army National Guard veteran Joe Young of Orange says he hopes to be one of the next.
Many have attempted the 2,180-mile trek — some have finished, some have not. They've done it for many reasons: the challenge, the sheer exhilaration or just to be able to say they did it.
Others, like Young, decide they want to do it to find the piece of their soul they lost somewhere along the way — Young says he lost his in Iraq.
The 61-year-old veteran retired after spending 42 1/ 2 years in the National Guard. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, a type of anxiety disorder that occurs after someone has gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involves the threat of injury or death.
It’s obvious that he doesn’t like to talk about the specifics of what he saw in Iraq when he was deployed from 2003 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2006. He served at Abu Ghraib prison and says if someone tries to push him too hard into talking about it and he starts to feel too uncomfortable, he simply leaves the room.
‘‘I hope that sometime during my six-month hike with 13 other veterans I find that piece of my soul I'm looking for,’’ he said just days before he left for Georgia on March 14.
The Recorder
By ANITA FRITZ
March 28, 2014
ORANGE, Mass. (AP) — It was 1948, three years after the end of World War II, when Earl Shaffer, a U.S. Army veteran from Pennsylvania, hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, something no one else had done to that point.
More than 14,000 people have hiked the entire trail since Shaffer, and U.S. Army National Guard veteran Joe Young of Orange says he hopes to be one of the next.
Many have attempted the 2,180-mile trek — some have finished, some have not. They've done it for many reasons: the challenge, the sheer exhilaration or just to be able to say they did it.
Others, like Young, decide they want to do it to find the piece of their soul they lost somewhere along the way — Young says he lost his in Iraq.
The 61-year-old veteran retired after spending 42 1/ 2 years in the National Guard. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, a type of anxiety disorder that occurs after someone has gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involves the threat of injury or death.
It’s obvious that he doesn’t like to talk about the specifics of what he saw in Iraq when he was deployed from 2003 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2006. He served at Abu Ghraib prison and says if someone tries to push him too hard into talking about it and he starts to feel too uncomfortable, he simply leaves the room.
‘‘I hope that sometime during my six-month hike with 13 other veterans I find that piece of my soul I'm looking for,’’ he said just days before he left for Georgia on March 14.
Recognizing the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of long-distance hiking, Warrior Hike has partnered with the conservancy, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition and the Pacific Crest Trail Association to create the ‘‘Walk Off the War’’ program, which takes place all over the United States.
read more here
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Walking Off War Veterans Hike along Appalachian Trail
Stark County veteran embarks on Warrior Hike along Appalachian Trail
Beacon Journal
By Jim Carney
staff writer
Published: March 17, 2014
Cecil E. Thayer III plans to spend the next six months walking away his war.
Thayer, 27, of Canton, on Monday began a hike of the Appalachian Trail with 13 other veterans.
“This is a time to just kind of deal with a lot of the issues that I have never really had time to deal with,” Thayer, originally from Massillon, said in an interview shortly before the trip began. A Marine and Ohio Army National Guard veteran who served two tours in Iraq, he received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq in 2006.
He and the other veterans entered the nearly 2,185-mile Appalachian Trail in Georgia. They plan to reach Maine sometime in September as part of a group called Warrior Hike and its event called “Walk Off The War.”
Marine Capt. Sean Gobin, a 38-year old Rhode Island native, started the Warrior Hike nonprofit group. He left the service as a 12-year veteran with two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
Gobin, now an MBA student at the University of Virginia, walked the Appalachian Trail in 2012 to raise money for a fellow Marine veteran who lost both legs in combat in 2011. He decided to expand the idea and created the Warrior Hike.
Last year, 14 veterans hiked the Appalachian Trail. This year, along with the group doing that trail, groups in the western United States are hiking the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail.
read more here
Beacon Journal
By Jim Carney
staff writer
Published: March 17, 2014
Cecil E. Thayer III plans to spend the next six months walking away his war.
Thayer, 27, of Canton, on Monday began a hike of the Appalachian Trail with 13 other veterans.
“This is a time to just kind of deal with a lot of the issues that I have never really had time to deal with,” Thayer, originally from Massillon, said in an interview shortly before the trip began. A Marine and Ohio Army National Guard veteran who served two tours in Iraq, he received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq in 2006.
He and the other veterans entered the nearly 2,185-mile Appalachian Trail in Georgia. They plan to reach Maine sometime in September as part of a group called Warrior Hike and its event called “Walk Off The War.”
Marine Capt. Sean Gobin, a 38-year old Rhode Island native, started the Warrior Hike nonprofit group. He left the service as a 12-year veteran with two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
Gobin, now an MBA student at the University of Virginia, walked the Appalachian Trail in 2012 to raise money for a fellow Marine veteran who lost both legs in combat in 2011. He decided to expand the idea and created the Warrior Hike.
Last year, 14 veterans hiked the Appalachian Trail. This year, along with the group doing that trail, groups in the western United States are hiking the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)