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Today@Sam Article

Community To 'March' In Memory, Pick Up 'Load' For Annual Event

Oct. 1, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Aubrie Walker

 

Sammy and his team of Bearkats took up the challenge to "carry the load" for servicemen and servicewomen in the 2012 Ruck March. Proceeds from the annual event routinely benefit area charitable organizations and local civil service departments. —Photo submitted by Travis Ross

 

Most people know someone in the military or who works in civil service.

We have days throughout the year to commemorate their service and deaths, but many do not realize the mental, emotional, and physical load that these men and women carry in and out of duty.

On Saturday (Oct. 18), the Sam Houston State University Veterans Resources Center will provide an opportunity for members of the Bearkat and area communities to symbolically “pick up” that “load” for the fifth annual Ruck March, a 10-mile hike through the Huntsville State Park.

(Above) Participants gather for the opening ceremony of last year's Ruck March. (Below) Using a staggered-start format, groups begin the march in five-minute intervals, based on the amount of weight they carry in their makeshift rucks. Participants can choose to carry anywhere from 25 pounds, to no ruck at all. —Photos courtesy of the VRC

“The Ruck March’s purpose is to bring attention to the service members who are serving both overseas and here, like the policemen and firemen,” said Fernando Chavez, Veterans Resource Center director. “These people are carrying a load for this country.”

The event is designed to give participants a glance into the lives of men and women in the “service” field by being involved in a real, physically demanding activity.

“On deployment and or in combat the mental, emotional, and physical ‘loads’ really put quite a bit of weight and stress on service members, both literally and figuratively,” said Jacob Bullion, the SHSU VRC recruiting coordinator and Ruck March founder.

“It can be tough not knowing if you will return from a day out on patrol or seeing your friends get wounds that will affect them for the rest of their lives,” said Bullion, who understands this from personal experience as a second lieutenant in the Texas Army National Guard, having served in Afghanistan. “We have to keep our thoughts on the mission ahead, because if we get distracted, we run the risk of getting people hurt.”

Ruck marches are typically used as means of training for individuals in service and happen frequently. Each service member is required to carry a rucksack with a designated amount of weight inside.

“This kind of training conditions them for the rough environment that they might encounter,” Chavez said. “Training like this is important for any military just as well for police and firemen.”

The Ruck March started in 2010 as a five-mile march beginning in the Westhill Mall parking lot.

“It started as a great idea and program,” said Clint Lockwood, director of the SHSU Visitor Center and participant in the 2010 Ruck March, “but it has now grown into more of a full-fledged event.

“I liked the coming together of the university and community and the support that was strummed up between them, making us one big community,” he said.

The participants range from veterans, to students, to citizens of Huntsville and surrounding areas, as well as groups from the university, police force and firemen.

“You get to meet so many different people while you are walking and talking, especially when you have veteran students at SHSU whom you would have never known were veterans unless they told you,” said Chavez, who also served as a second class petty officer in the United States Navy.

Sammy salutes Jacob Bullion, the VRC recruiting coordinator who not only serves as a second lieutenant in the Texas Army National Guard (and has been deployed to Afghanistan) but also founded the Ruck March in 2010. —Photo submitted by Travis Ross

Along with bringing the community together, the center donates the proceeds of the event to a military or service-related organization. Previous beneficiaries have included the Warrior and Family Support Center at the Brooke Army Medical Center, the Walker County Sheriff's Department, the Huntsville Volunteer Fire Department, the Wounded Warrior Project, Huntsville Police Officers Association, and Huntsville Volunteer Fire Department.

This year’s proceeds will benefit the Red Lion Project, which was created by the parents of Cpl. Joseph Logan, a Willis native, who was killed in a helicopter crash along with five other marines while deployed in Afghanistan. They would later be named the “the Fallen Six.”

By donating to local organizations, Chavez said they hope to raise awareness of the many organizations working in our area to support the troops and servicemen and women, while also raising money for some lesser-known causes, as well as those who sacrifice their lives in the line of duty.

“The ‘load’ is also carried by the family members of service members, whom many of us in uniform see as the real heroes, as they have to be the ones to carry on at home in the service member’s absence,” Bullion said. “Through donating these funds to the Red Lion Project, we are giving recognition to the Logan family and to the ‘the Fallen Six.’”

The project was created in fulfillment of a dream of Cpl. Logan’s—to provide a space for current or former servicemen and servicewomen to get away and enjoy the outdoors.

Logan’s family is doing so by building six cabins, in the name of the “Fallen Six,” on a 164-acre piece of property in Mineral County, Montana. The cabins will be completely surrounded by 3,150 square miles of National Forest.

“The whole point of being out at the Ruck March with veterans, students and community members, is to think about everything that is going on through out the world, everything that has happened since Sept. 11, and think about the burden of these things and how we are carrying as a symbolic load for them,” Chavez said.

For more information about registration, contact the VRC at 936.294.1046 or veterans@shsu.edu, and to learn more about the Red Lion Project, visit redlionusmcproject.com.

 

 

 

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