jetmir101p

22 VETERANS

I am going to be thru hiking starting february 13th. A little history on myself. i joined the Marine Corps at the age of 17. by 18 i was already on my first deployment to Helmand province Afghanistan. by 20 i was heading out for my second tour and made it safely home. i finished my enlistment july of 2013 and everything went kind of rocky from then on. i found myself stripped of all of the family i grew to love. i truly felt alone, i felt worthless, i felt like a hair on an elephants ass. i reached a truly low point in life and contemplated several times on just ending the misery i was faced with. then i went to the culinary institute of america where i had the pleasure of being roommates with someone forced out of the navy due to the downsizing of the armed forces. i have to say that was the single greatest thing that could have happened to both of us. we were able to talk to each other and truly understand the hardships we were both facing. it was nice not to feel alone anymore. this story brings me to a statistic that i would like to share with you. a statistic that i almost became apart of. 22 veterans a day kill themselves. that is over 8000 veterans every year or cannot handle the hardships of separating from the armed forces. i am walking this appalachian trail to promote suicide awareness for veterans of the armed forces to let them know they are not just a hair on an elephants ass. to show them that they are not alone in this world. i hope you all keep me in mind when i begin my excursion in february and i hope to see you on the trail. be well all until next time

USMC 0341
Jetmir J. Thompson