Remembering Two Veterans

[Scrum]

On Memorial Day, it seems fitting to take a moment to think of two veterans who lost their lives on the AT over the last year.

Ronald Sanchez's violent death earlier this month is, perhaps, even more tragic because he sought out the AT to help heal emotional wounds from his military service.

Let us also remember another veteran, Michael Camiso, who in May 2018 drowned while attempting to swim across the Kennebec River. According to posts here on WB by a person stating she was Michael's sister, he sustained a traumatic brain injury that caused mental illness, and his decision to cross the river was the result of his paranoia and schizophrenia. https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/129600-Hiker-Killed-Fording-the-Kennebec/page3?highlight=Camiso

Both deaths are profoundly sad.

[Hatchet_1697]

Salute to both of them, and to all the other veterans I’ve met on the trail walking to heal. When I first started hiking the AT, literally my first step onto the trail, I met a hiker hiking it for the six solders he lost in Afghanistan. He had their dog tags with them. Really opened my mind about what the trail means to people, especially vets. Wish I remembered his name.

[Tipi Walter]

On my last backpacking trip I was camping on Jacks River in Georgia and was reading thru some crap I copied off the Interwad from Wikipedia. Many pages were devoted to 173rd Airborne Brigade's history in Vietnam (many tough battles)---and a complete Wiki article on the rigors of Army Ranger School.

What's weird is that I met a 50 year old guy and his wife camping nearby named Deanna and Van. (Van is preparing to tackle the AT in 2020.) We got to talking about my reading material and it turns out Van attended Ranger School in the 1980s and was a Abrams tanker in the Gulf War.

45214