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PORTLAND, Ore. - A John Day Lock and Dam crane operator set out
for a hike one day on the Appalachian Trail. It was a long hike. Six
weeks and 1,100 miles later, Kevin Kitchen, an Air Force veteran,
and his hiking partner Army veteran Eric Bourquin reached the marker
at end of the trail, adding their names to the list of people who
have made the same trek.
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Army veteran Eric Bourquin (front) and Kevin Kitchen, a U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District employee and an Air Force
veteran, hiked the Appalachian Trail to promote awareness of two
critical veterans issues: unemployment and Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Their journey was sponsored by the Hiking Heroes
Foundation. (U.S. Army photo by Michelle Helms)
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Their journey, sponsored by the Hiking Heroes Foundation,
was intended to bring awareness to two issues many veterans
struggle with: unemployment and Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder.
“It's amazing,” said Kitchen. “You go
through parts of Virginia and they have never been around
people in the military. All they know is what they see on
the news; they have no idea what PTSD truly is.”
Bourquin began the hike July 11 at the northern end of the
trail at Mount Katahdin, Maine, with Army veteran Sean
Niquette. It's not an easy hike; the Appalachian Trail
Conservancy website reports the trail is about 2,180 miles
long and stretches through 14 states, from Maine to Georgia.
Halfway into the hike Niquette had to fall out; that's when
Kitchen stepped up to support Bourquin's quest to finish the
trail.
“This is something I firmly believe in,” said
Kitchen. “Eric needed someone to hike with him and I
couldn't leave him out there on his own.”
Kitchen is
an Air Force veteran who still takes his “wingman”
responsibilities seriously. He spent much of his military
career on combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan; missions
where looking out for the airman or soldier serving next to
you becomes second nature. His devotion to duty earned him
awards and recognition, including a Presidential Citation
and a Bronze Star with Valor.
The Department of
Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD says between 11
and 20 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan may experience post traumatic stress. Kitchen is
one of those veterans.
“I have my days, but it's not
a bad thing,” said Kitchen. “[I am able to] function and do
a job with post traumatic stress.”
He carried that
message with him as he hiked the trail, meeting people of
all ages from all walks of life.
“I talked to
doctors, students, business people,” said Kitchen. “I told
them to be aware. There are a lot of younger people out
there who have post traumatic stress, but it doesn't make
them unemployable.”
In recent years, unemployment
rates for veterans who served since 9/11 have hovered around
10 percent, but according to statistics released by the U.S.
Department of Labor in December, it's getting a little
better as more employers hire veterans.
Veterans
returning to civilian life and jobs bring a lot to the
table. In addition to job skills acquired in the military,
veterans have reliable work ethics, communication and
leadership skills -- and they work well on teams.
Kitchen began working for the Portland District nearly two
years ago. He is one of only four crane operators on the
John Day structural crew. When he asked to join the hike his
supervisor wasn't sure they could manage without him.
“Kevin came in my office on a Tuesday morning and said
‘I have an opportunity to help another veteran,” said Mike
Decker, John Day Lock and Dam Structural Crew Supervisor.
“My interest was piqued. So I asked how long are we talking
about?”
Kitchen was talking about a six week
commitment and would need to leave on Thursday, just two
days later.
“It was right in the middle of our
busiest season,” said Decker. “The holidays were coming up,
too. I wasn't sure we could do it. It would be a hardship
for the entire crew.”
Decker thought about it
overnight; he visited www.hikingheroes.com, the Hiking
Heroes website. As he learned more about their mission he
felt he needed to try to find a way to let Kitchen go, but
he needed his crew's support.
“Probably 95 percent of
our crew members are veterans,” said Decker. “So when one
veteran said that they were going to help another veteran
they were all-in. They said they would do what they needed
to do to support it.”
Two days later Kitchen was on
his way to Virginia to catch up with Bourquin and complete a
hike for which most people spend months training.
“Prior to this, I told my girlfriend I would never hike
again, or camp,” said Kitchen. “I had no interest in either
when I got out of the military.”
It had been a few
years since his last military deployment, but this quick
deployment felt familiar in some ways.
“I've been in
that mindset enough before, where you just kind of forget
about everything else and focus on the mission at hand,” he
said.
Kitchen said in addition to spreading awareness
and promoting understanding of PTSD and veteran
unemployment, the hike gave him some time to decompress,
gave him a chance to clear his mind and focus on just one
thing: reaching the end of the trail.
“It was time
for me just to let go of everything and just think about
walking and where I was going to sleep the next night,” said
Kitchen. “It was easy. I didn't have a million things going
at one time.”
That said he doesn't plan to do take a
walk like this again anytime soon.
“It gets to be
like tunnel vision out there, too. I mean, all you're doing
is walking,” said Kitchen.
There's a lot to be said
about the benefits of taking a nice, long walk. For this
hiking hero, those benefits included increasing awareness
and understanding for his fellow veterans and how PTSD can
affect them. And some long walks, like Kitchen and
Bourquin's, bring you to the end of the Appalachian Trail.
By U.S. Army Michelle Helms
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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