{"id":338241,"date":"2025-10-28T11:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338241\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:27:11","slug":"veteran-organization-walking-150-miles-from-tucson-to-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338241\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran organization walking 150 miles from Tucson to Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) \u2014 Josh Henderson, an Army veteran who was a staff sergeant and deployed to Iraq, is the founder of <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sonoranvalor.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonoran Valor Respair.<\/a> He\u2019s walking with a SWAT officer about 150 miles from the Tucson VA to the Phoenix VA as part of what he\u2019s calling the Desert Challenge Ruck. The journey spans five days, walking about 30 miles each day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarrying a mental issue is like carrying a rucksack,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s heavy, and a lot of times people don\u2019t know how much weight is in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After serving in Iraq, Henderson said he struggled with PTSD and depression. He founded Sonoran Valor Respair to help other veterans go through similar challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like I kind of lost part of who I was, which was another reason for this organization,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of us felt the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henderson said he\u2019s used resources like the VA\u2019s hotline for help, but he wants to make sure others know what support is available.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the number of veterans grows, you hear more and more horror stories about maybe being put on hold or a line getting disconnected,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cWe just need to make sure everyone is aware of what\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, more than six thousand veterans died by suicide each year from 2001 to 2022. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that in 2020, more than five million veterans experienced a behavioral health condition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody kind of hits a point where they can\u2019t do it themselves,\u201d Henderson commented.<\/p>\n<p>The walk is a way for Henderson and others to bond in the same way he bonded with his Army brother and sisters when he served.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree of us that are marching today, two of them have never met before, and now they know everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, the group is stopping to speak with people about mental health and raising donations for military members, veterans, first responders, and their families through peer support, community outreach, and other programs they offer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur rucks are heavy, they\u2019re cumbersome, and now people can see what we\u2019re carrying,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n<p>The Desert Challenge wraps up on October 31, but Henderson hopes to make it an annual event, and hopes to have more veterans joining next year, or even this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all carrying something,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to do it alone, and you don\u2019t have to hide it. Talk to somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) \u2014 Josh Henderson, an Army veteran who was a staff sergeant and deployed to Iraq,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":338242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,517,1589,167048,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2512],"class_list":{"0":"post-338241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-phoenix","13":"tag-sonoran-valor-respair","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa","20":"tag-veterans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115451556409641860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}