Trails to Tomorrow goes the distance for veteran suicide awareness
By Heather Ruenz
Editor
“Statistically, the first three years of members leaving the military have the highest chance of committing suicide so we try to help them right away,” Casey Dean, co-founder of Trails to Tomorrow, said.
The organization, based at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, coordinates hiking and backpacking trips for veterans. Dean said the purpose of the trips is to foster connections.
“If we can help them find a friend, find a job, reintegrate with their families – and if we put them together with people who have already done that, it really helps,” Dean said.
Dean, a junior marketing and entrepreneurship major at UW-Whitewater, served in the U.S. Coast Guard for three years and went on tours to South America while serving. He said after completing his service, returning to non-military life was challenging.
“It’s a difficult thing because when there you’re told what to do, when, you have set friends, and so on,” Dean said. “But when it’s over you lose a lot of things – mainly the support network and structure you’re used to. And even the circle of friends you had prior to serving can change because you’ve had an entirely different experience than they have during that time.”
Dean said when he and his wife moved to Whitewater from Bayfield he became involved in a veteran agency on campus.
“I realized it was saving veterans’ lives. From there we created Trails to Tomorrow to connect veterans that have been out of the service for a while with those who have recently ended their service, on backpacking trips,” he said.
Dean said some research they conducted revealed about 80 percent of non-veterans don’t understand what veterans went through.
“So, those who have served shy away from those interactions and that often leaves them alone, depressed and often, suicidal,” he said.
Staggering statistics
The statistics reveal just how serious the issue of veteran suicide is with what Dean calls a “conservative estimate” of 22 suicides each day.
A recent study by Veterans Affairs, of more than 1.2 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2007 yielded the following results:
- The “22-a-day” statistic is heavily skewed toward older veterans. Among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the number is “one-a-day”;
- The suicide risk for deployed veterans is 41 percent higher than the general population and 21.3 percent of the 317,581 deployed veterans committed suicide;
- The suicide risk for non-deployed veterans is 61 percent higher than the general population. Of the 964,493 non-deployed veterans, 19.7 percent committed suicide;
- Male veterans were three times more likely to commit suicide than female veterans but female veterans are roughly two times more likely to commit suicide than the general population;
- The risk of suicide is highest within the first three years following discharge.
‘Going the Distance’
To increase awareness of the issue of veteran suicide, Dean and his wife, along with Richard Guidry – the general manager of Trails to Tomorrow – and the veterans services staff at UW-Whitewater, teamed up to create Going the Distance, a program and 22-lap walk around campus, held April 4.
Guidry joined the organization earlier this year and said he “found a place and a home with it. I appreciate what they’re doing and understand the cause. I want to do everything I can to help out.”
Dean said they “talked to (UW-Whitewater Chancellor) Bev Kopper and she was thrilled for us to have it here. UW-W is very accommodating to veterans.”
The event began with a program in the James R. Connor University Center on campus that featured several speakers including: student veterans; Dr. James Lickell, a therapist who works with veterans at the Madison VA Hospital and visits UW-Whitewater at least once a month; and Doug Bradley, a Vietnam veteran and author.
Lickell said as a therapist he thinks “about veteran suicide every day, and often at home at night. Even while in war, we’ve had two wars where more servicemen died by suicide than other ways.”
He said veterans often have been desensitized to death.
A key to successfully reintegrating into society, according to Lickell, is “belonging, being a part of something, being part of a group. I see that here in the Veterans Center. People look out for each other.”
One student speaker, Ryan Krebs, a veteran of the Marine Corps and current sophomore at UW-Whitewater, said five close friends died in a relatively short timespan: two in vehicle crashes, two in Afghanistan, and one who took his own life.
“It hit me hard. Last semester I was going to school to see my friends for the last time and was going to go home and put a bullet in my head,” Krebs said.
But that day didn’t go as planned.
“A friend talked to me about a project he was working on and one question was ‘Have you ever thought about suicide?’ I told him I had but didn’t tell him my plans for that day,” Krebs said. “One thing he said to me was, ‘I’m glad you’re still with us.’ I thank him every day for saving my life.”
Krebs had one final thought to share with the audience in the old ballroom at the University Center.
“Not everyone who dies in war dies on the battlefield,” he said.
Bradley said when he returned home from deployment 45 years earlier “there was still a war going on and it affected me. We Vietnam vets were caught in the middle… America didn’t want anything to do with us.”
Once he realized “many were worse off than I was, I decided to help them and have been doing so for 44 years,” Bradley said.
Most of the work he’s done is with writing – and helping veterans write as a way to express their feelings.
“I’m not saying the arts will save everyone but if one or two or 10 can use creativity to heal, isn’t it worth it?” he said.
Bradley then shared excerpts from the writings of several veterans, including some who have since committed suicide.
After a question and answer session with a group of student veterans, Dean brought the program indoors to a close.
“No one should ever have to walk alone and that is why we’re going the distance for veterans,” Dean said.
The group moved outside where Taps and a 21-gun salute took place followed by a 22-lap walk around campus, approximately 10 miles. The first lap was done in silence in memory of the veterans who have committed suicide.
About Trails to Tomorrow
“Our main focus is getting the awareness out to help us take our veterans out into wilderness and help them integrate back into civility,” Dean said. “We try to do a small day trip in this area every other weekend – usually in the Kettle Moraine. And we try to do one major trip each year.”
Last year a group backpacked the John Muir Trail, 220 miles from Yosemite to the top of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental U.S. – a 22-day trip, Dean said.
“We met a lot of people along the way and some people came in for longer portions of the trip while others joined us when they could,” he said.
While there is a long way to go, Dean said a difference is being made in Whitewater.
“There are a handful of veterans who have come forward and said they’ve struggled and without the support here at UWW and the backpacking trips, might not be here today,” Dean said.
“I know with me, the friends I had before… you think you can just come back and reconnect with them but it’s hard. They’re in a very different place and have inside jokes and memories you missed out on and so on. You feel very out of place,” he said.
In addition to veterans, Dean said others join the trips including master’s candidates and students doing research on veterans, wilderness certified medics and former medics from the service.
“The focus of the trips is to put one foot in front of the other and that’s very helpful to begin with. Then the conversations sometimes come easily once the walking starts,” he said.
With the equipment on hand about 10 people can go on the longer backpacking trips and the group is always seeking donations to be able to increase that number.
“While we’ll take anything donated, backpacking gear and equipment is different from camping, because of weights of items, etc. while rain gear, hiking boots, etc. are pretty universal,” Dean said.
Monetary donations are also accepted and will be used to purchase backpacks and supplies for the trips.
For more information about Trails to Tomorrow visit trailstotomorrow.com or follow Trails to Tomorrow on Facebook, which has the most up to date content, Dean said.
Community support
Dean said several businesses in the community donated to the Going the Distance event with the local Toppers Pizza being one of the major sponsors.
Merrill Thomas, general manager of the Whitewater Toppers restaurant, said Guidry contacted her and asked if they would donate a pizza party for the team with the highest number of participants.
“I told him we could that, for sure, but wanted to do more, knowing the impact it could have,” Thomas said.
The restaurant donated about $500 in gift certificates.
“We just wanted to make sure they had enough to give to the people that came out and supported the cause,” Thomas said. “Being supportive of anything we can in our local community has always been a priority for us and being able to support this program was an honor.”
