Second annual Rucksack March to honor veterans

If you have ever seen retired Washakie County Sheriff Steve Rakness walking around Worland with a heavy rucksack on his back, know that he's not crazy; he's getting ready for something important to him; honoring and helping veterans who have since hung their rucksacks up.

He said, "Veterans are serving all over the world as we speak, and have served. So it's a way to honor them and say that you're not forgotten. We're still supporting you and we support what jobs you do. So, think of us because we're thinking of you; I know lot of them do more than five-and-a-half miles like we'll do on Veterans Day, but we're going to do it to honor them and to make sure that they're not forgotten."

Rakness, who is also retired from the Special Forces, does walks with his rucksack about once a week, partly to stay in shape but also in preparation for the Rucksack March, an annual event he began to undertake on Veterans Day: a five-and-a-half-mile march kitted out with a rucksack and rifle to honor those who serve.

The Rucksack March has grown into an event that he shares with other veterans and family members of veterans to provide a positive outlet and raise awareness. This will be the second year he hosts the public event.

RAKNESS'S SERVICE

"It was something I just always wanted to do," Rakness said about joining the military. He adds, "My uncles were in the military; my older uncles were there during World War II, and my younger uncle was in the military during the Vietnam era ... So I just thought, well, I should join too. So yeah, some friends and I did it in high school. We got deferred to the Wyoming National Guard, and we got to go to the armory and get paid for what we did. That was a big deal while we were still in high school."

He began his military service with the Wyoming National Guard in 1975. He was a member of his unit for six years. He recalls this time as too uneventful for his liking, saying, "You know, you sit around for long enough and you go, 'Well, there's got to be more to what you're doing.' And so some hunters came up to the ranch my family and I leased between the Medicine Bow Mountains, and they were talking about a unit they were in that went and shot guns all the time, and jumped out of airplanes, and went all over the world. And I go, 'Well, man, that sounds better than what I'm doing.' So I joined up there, and that was it."

Rakness continued serving by joining the Colorado National Guard in 1981, based in Fort Collins. He said, "So I spent 16 years with the Army National Guard. So that was an adventure of itself." He underwent training to join the 19th Special Forces Group, a process that was both rigorous and took a lot of time. After some years, he was a fully-fledged member of the Special Forces. He recalls, "We got deployed all over the place, which, you would have never done right back in that time. And now everybody's getting deployed all over the world, but back then, we went all over the place on the Pacific Rim. We were deployed to Haiti, Honduras, Guam, Hawaii, the Philippines, the Maldive Islands, Korea, Thailand, places like that."

He adds, "The training that we got in Special Forces, of course, was a lot different than you get when you were in the Engineer Corps in the Wyoming Guard, which was my experience before that, right? So it was a little bit different training. A lot of the people that were in our unit at that time were Vietnam veterans that were in Special Forces already in Vietnam. So they had a lot of insight. We got a lot of good training from those folks."

He recalls some of the things that have stuck with him from his time overseas, saying, "We did some of our final training in the Maldive Islands. We did urban warfare training in downtown Mali at the Capitol, and the population was mostly Islamic. When we first got there, we were training pretty heavy, doing our thing, but at certain times of the day, prayer time would come up. We were taught, OK, you stop for prayers to be respectful to their culture. Our colonel would run up to us and went, 'What are you doing?' We told him, 'Well, sir, we're stopping for prayers. Aren't we supposed to do that?' He said, "No, no, no. God understands what soldiers have to do. Keep training.' So we never stopped again."

He continued, "Haiti was a little bit different. They were pretty indifferent to life in Haiti. We would drive from Jérémie over to Les Cayes, on top of the mountain, and they knew that the [United Nations] and the Americans were traveling around, and anybody who died or passed away, they placed their body in the middle of the road, and we'd find it. We'd have to call the UN Police to come in, and Haitian police would come and do investigations. So, yeah, that was pretty wild. You would just be driving along, then there'd be a dead body in the middle of the road that we have to take care of."

LASTING EFFECTS

Rakness said that the things he saw in his service prepared him to deal with his career in law enforcement when he came home, but he didn't shy away from talking about the harm such experiences can cause, and how much the culture around it has shifted. He said, "You know, lot of times we talk about veteran mental health; training and preparation has always been a key to make sure that you can overcome those obstacles, but back in the day, in law enforcement and in the military, if you came up to somebody and said, 'Hey, I need to talk to somebody. I have some issues.' You know what? They would tell you, 'Yeah, so you don't say a thing to anybody, because they'll kick you out.' They would kick you out of law enforcement, they'd kick you out of the military. Nowadays, it's totally different. You can go ask for help, and they give you help."

He added, "When I worked here in Worland, we'd have people who were involved in critical incidents, and they'd say, 'I think I need to talk to somebody.' We just immediately got them in touch with somebody to go talk to. And now in the military, it's the same way. It's very different than what it used to be, because you'd never say that. You didn't ever publicly express that. You may go talk to somebody, but you never said that to anybody that was in charge of you, or they'd just say you need to find something different."

MARCHING FOR GOOD

Rakness spoke about how his march began as a positive outlet for himself, and how he extended an offer for other veterans to join him. He said, "That's kind of why we do this Rucksack March, is just to get out and do something. Through studies, physical activity has been found to keep you from dwelling on those things. We can do one better by sharing in that with your comrades and people who had like experiences. You get with other veterans and do that stuff, right? It, just makes you feel better, so you're not dwelling on the past."

He continued about work he does to reach other veterans, saying, "One of the outreach things we try to do at the Bomber Mountain Barbell Gym is working with veterans. I'm there Mondays and Wednesdays. If you want to come out and work out. So I work out for three hours, and you can come and work out, but if you just need to come and talk for an hour, you know, we'd be there. I'm not saying that I've been everywhere in the world and seen everything, but I've seen a lot of stuff between my civilian job and military job."

Rakness added, "Everyone in the military has had a different experience. Somebody who's not been in that same situation just doesn't understand, right? That's what we do this for, and that's why we do the Rucksack March."

RUCKSACK MARCH

Rakness said the event will take place on Veterans Day (Monday, Nov. 11), starting at Bomber Mountain Barbell Club in Worland. Veterans, family members and supporters are all welcome to join.

Rakness will be there to meet up at 6 a.m., and the group will depart at 6:30 a.m. He described the five-and-a-half mile route, saying, "We're gonna go up South Flat, then turn on Lane 14, then go down Airport Road, then we'll amble on through town and meet up at the American Legion hall and have breakfast." He added, "I'm a member of both the VFW and the American Legion, so this is kind of a way for me to give back to the Legion."

He said, only half-joking, "If you don't think you can make it, we'll get a soft litter for you and we'll carry you there."

He said that those with military gear are encouraged to bring it with them on the march, saying, "Bring your rifle and bring your rucksack; I'm not weighing rucksacks, I'm not going to weigh anything, because it's immaterial what they weigh. It's just for everybody to get together and pound out some mileage and then have breakfast together."

"Those guys [veterans] might think we're just sitting at home in front of the fire, sipping a hot cocoa, but I want them to know we're going to be out there, no matter what the weather does, doing something for them," said Rakness.