Marine veteran begins trek across country for PTSD awareness
The former Marine plans to visit with gold star families and other veterans with PTSD on his journey
December 10, 2015
As numbers continue to rise for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder related suicide deaths, veterans everywhere are searching for way to help themselves and their fellow soldiers through the debilitating mental illness.
Marine veteran Jonathan Hancock of Maryland has found a way to cope and spread awareness at the same time: walking.
After serving eight years in the Marine Corps and seeing the battlefield, Hancock returned home, only to find that he was having trouble with the transition.
“I went down a pretty tough road,” Hancock said. “Two DUI’s and a suicide attempt later, I started understanding what I could do in my life versus just sitting in the dark and waiting.”
On September 11, 2015, he began a journey across the country, carrying 70 pounds of gear on his back, with the hope of clearing his own mind, and seeking out others going through the same battle he was.
“It’s a journey of self-healing as well, and taking those memories at task after eight years of combat,” Hancock said. “If I was hurting as bad as I was, some of those guys might be hurting as I was.”
In addition to visiting with fellow Marines suffering from PTSD, he also visits gold-star families. His first stop on his trek was a week with the family of Marine Cpl. Dustin Schrage, who Hancock served in combat with in Iraq.
Cpl. Shcrage joined the Marines right out of high school, and was killed in Iraq at 20-years-old in 2004.
Schrage’s mother, Nina Schrage, was grateful for Hancock’s visit and the comfort it brought.
“There’s been so much healing I mean the second night he was here,” Mrs. Schrage said. “I’ve met them, I embrace them, I love them, I look at them as I would think about my son coming home.”
Mrs. Schrage is hopeful Hancock’s journey brings comfort to soldiers suffering from PTSD, as she has tried to do by opening her doors to those wounded soldiers.
“The ones I’ve met are doing okay, but I’ve also met some that have since committed suicide,” she said. “They came to my house, spent a week with me and committed suicide a few years later, so it’s real, it’s real. I have a vision that this can become a movement. Wouldn’t that be amazing if some veterans started walking with [him] along [his] route?”
Hancock hopes to reach California by Christmas of 2016.
https://www.military1.com/ptsd/article/1565138014-marine-veteran-begins-trek-across-country-for-ptsd-awareness
