THE LONG TRAIL HOME
A
little more than two years ago, Matt Littrell a combat
veteran from Colorado, found himself struggling with
the transition from combat to civilian life, feeling lost
and alone and contemplating suicide. Unfortunately, Matt is
not alone in his pain or his situation. Many of his brothers
and sisters veterans find themselves in exactly the same
situation--lost, alone, struggling with the return to civilian life
and considering suicide. Every day we lose twenty-two of
our veterans to suicide, twenty-two each and every single
day.
One year after, Matt Littrell found himself contemplating
his own suicide he decided that he needed to do something
to make a difference in the lives of his brother and sister
veterans. His own struggle returning to civilian life from
combat and the knowledge that twenty-two of his brothers
and sisters are lost to suicide every day spurred Matt to action
and inspired him to do something about it. He decided to
make a coast to coast trek on horseback to raise awareness
for the Semper Fi Fund. (The Semper Fi Fund is a 501(c)
(3) nonprofit set up to provide immediate financial support for
injured and critically ill members of the post 9-11 U.S. Armed
Forces and their families. )
Matt figured traveling on horseback from coast to coast
would be difficult to accomplish and something that a lot
of people could get behind. In March he decided to start
6 Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado
his journey just South of Camp Lejeune on Topsail Beach
in North Carolina. Everyone got a glimpse of the proposed
route as Matt posted updates to the Face book page. By the
end of March the route up to Albuquerque, NM was settled
and Matt was back in Colorado.
To prepare for the ride and to get the news out that he
was riding a mustang from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific
coast, to raise awareness and funding for the Semper Fi
Fund and all of the veterans struggling to return to civilian
life, he created a Facebook page on January 30th 2014.
He named his page “The Long Trail Home” and by January
31st he had already gathered 1000 likes on Facebook. The
news continued to spread and by March 7th that number had
quadrupled to more than 4000 likes and his journey had not
even begun.
Unfortunately, at the end of March 2014, Matt’s father had
an accident with his horse breaking his leg when the horse
fell on him. Matt had to postpone the start of the ride to
make sure everything was taken care of for his father and his
broken leg at home before he set out.
April began and the ride started to get national attention, the
Facebook page likes were well over 5,000 and the general
route was announced leaving the Atlantic Coast through Surf
City, NC and on th ɽ՝