WILLEM: I'm standing today on the side of Smarts Mountain in Lyme, New Hampshire.

We're going to take a bit of a hike today with some very interesting people.

And naturally, you're invited.

♪ Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

Earl Shaffer was a young Pennsylvanian, a veteran of combat in the South Pacific in World War II.

In 1948, troubled by the things he'd seen and by the deaths of some of his friends, Earl took to the Appalachian Trail on Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia.

About four months later, he got to the top of Mount Katahdin in northern Maine, becoming the first ever thru-hiker.

Today, we're going to take a bit of a hike with a group of men and women who, like Earl, are walking off the war.

They're veterans of deployments all over the Middle East and Afghanistan.

They've been in New Hampshire now for only a couple of days, and they're just about to tackle the mighty Whites.

Let me introduce you to... ROB: Rob Carmel.

I was born in Maryland and I currently live in Olympia, Washington.

I'm no longer in the Army anymore.

I was on leave when we started.

STEPHANIE: Stephanie Cutts.

I live in Winters, California.

♪ SHARON: Sharon Smith.

I'm from Chicago, Illinois, and I live in Asheville, North Carolina.

My backyard is Smoky Mountain National Park, so I do a lot of backpacking.

STEVE: Steve Clendenning.

From Kokomo, Indiana, but I reside in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

I'm Marine Corps Infantry, so this has been my job for the past 20 years.

THOMAS: Thomas Gathman.

From Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, but I live in State College, Pennsylvania, now.

STEVE: He makes a wooly mammoth look like a shaved baby.

[laughter] WILLEM: That's the crew.

And we're going to start here by climbing Smarts Mountain.

And I'll be coming back down tonight while you all continue on to Mount Katahdin.

I’d go with you but my shoes are kind of worn out.

[laughter] So, shall we go?

Yes!

Let's do it.

♪ [crunching underfoot] SHARON: You guys have a beautiful state.

♪ WILLEM: The hiker began their journey five months ago in Georgia.

We heard they were coming through New England, so we arranged a hike with them for a few miles on the Appalachian Trail.

♪ We met at a trailhead on Smart's Mountain near Lyme, New Hampshire.

♪ How did you get involved with this outfit?

SHARON: I'm a veteran of Desert Storm.

I was a combat medic.

I flew in C-130s and was co-located with the First Marine Division over there.

And I heard about this program online and wanted to become a part of it.

♪ WILLEM: The Appalachian Trail is more than a walk in the woods.

It's a lot of work.

ROB: I'm dwindling away.

As we go up the trail, the weight’s just falling off behind me.

♪ WILLEM: Nearly 2,200 miles long, it snakes its way through 14 states.

These vets encountered snow, rain, and a few other challenges.

♪ STEVE: Let’s see.

I've been bit by a copperhead.

Um... I've been attacked by wasps.

Lost my appendix.

THOMAS: You didn't lose it!

Just doesn't have it anymore.

STEPHANIE: The hospital has it.

STEVE: Yeah, the hospital recuperated it.

ROB: Yeah!

PRODUCER: What happens when you have those medical emergencies?

STEVE: Um... she took care of me.

Mama goose took care of me.

SHARON: We got him to the hospital.

So, just in time!

STEVE: Just in time.

♪ [chatter] SHARON: We started with 14, and now, unfortunately, we're down five.

♪ WILLEM: Some of the original 14 hikers left the trail to return home to family.

Others needed to attend to injuries.

You're holding up all right?

SHARON: Doing great!

Yeah.

I had a little bit of a knee injury.

I had to take a day off.

WILLEM: Oh, dear!

SHARON: But doing good now.

♪ So, we have two Marines, one Army, one Navy, and one Air Force.

So, all branches.

WILLEM: And you don't argue?

SHARON: Oh, we argue!

[laughter] We argue every now and then!

WILLEM: That's great.

[banging] Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began in 2001, more than 2.5 million veterans have returned home.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that one of every five of those men and women live with post-traumatic stress disorder.

♪ Warrior Hike partnered with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to create Walk Off The War.

In its second year, the program helps veterans deal with the stress of war and the transition back to civilian life.

♪ Now, what ever inspired all of you to get together and do this?

STEPHANIE: Well, I think we all independently were going to hike the trail, and then, somehow or another, we all found Warrior Hike and came together.

♪ ROB: A change for me mentally.

I guess... we spend a long time when we don't do something like this, maybe building up walls around myself my whole life.

You know, when you're a sergeant major, you kind of have to keep to yourself a lot and can't have a whole lot of fun all the time.

So, I've been taking this time to try to take away the wall brick by brick maybe.

♪ WILLEM: Most of the equipment and supplies needed to keep this group on the move is donated.

This is the third pair of poles well yeah, third.

No!

It's the third time.

This is my fourth pair of poles.

Just crushing through gear.

Second backpack, second frame, fifth pair of shoes, first pair of women's shorts.

♪ [laughing] Wink!

STEPHANIE: The longer his beard gets the shorter his shorts get.

So, soon they'll be in Speedos.

THOMAS: Lord help us.

WILLEM: At other times, the hikers rely on the generosity of townsfolk they meet along the way.

WILLEM: I saw on your calendar a lot of blue medallions where you stopped at... American Legion places along the way.

THOMAS: We don't always have lodging but they always provide some kind of food or beverage for us.

And we do like a meet and greet or like a spaghetti dinner and get fed, and you get to meet some nice folks in some of the smaller towns that you don't normally get to frequent when you're just hiking the Appalachian Trail.

♪ SHARON: So, if you have the opportunity, which you do the entire time on the A.T., to go into a trail town to meet people, to experience the communities, that's what this is all about, too.

It's not just about going from blaze to blaze to blaze and getting to Katahdin.

THOMAS: Worth eating.

ROB: Grab what you can.

THOMAS: Rob and I have rummaged many blackberry and blueberry patches.

WILLEM: Sometimes, they find gifts left for them.

That's known as trail magic.

ROB: These are kind of small compared to the ones down in New Jersey.

STEVE: Trail magic is something could be anything, really, because when you're on the trail, you have nothing.

So, anything's magic, whether it be a ride into town or... a mesh bag full of sodas laying in a creek staying cold or some candy bars, beer, or a nice family just barbecuing up some burgers and hot dogs and passing them out to the hikers.

[dog barking] WILLEM: While we filmed, the group pretty much stuck together.

That's probably for our sake because it's not the way they usually hike.

Remember, they've been together in the woods for five months.

THOMAS: Yeah, we love each other so much.

STEPHANIE: But we love to be away from each other.

THOMAS: Get us together for too long... They have a saying out here.

It's called Hike your own hike, and it’s a cliché saying out here, but it holds true because if you try and hike someone else's hike, you know, go to where other people want to go or whatever... Just do whatever you want to do on the trail and that you know, stop where you want to stop up here, and take a break.

Eat where you want to eat.

Eat what you want to eat.

Sleep where you want to sleep.

Hike as fast as you want to hike or as slow as you want to hike.

STEVE: And go to the beach if you want to.

THOMAS: And go to the beach if you want to go to the beach.

♪ SHARON: There's something to be said about being out in the woods, in the wilderness and the healing effects of it are amazing.

So, not only that, but just pushing your body; just the health aspects of it as well.

So, physical health, mental health, I think it all comes hand in hand when you're out here on the A.T.

THOMAS: Seeing beautiful things, animals, birds, flowers, you know, fungus, clouds, sun, it's all pretty much awesome to me.

♪ WILLEM: As the veterans walk off the war one step at a time, something else is happening.

They refer to it as tearing down the wall, and it can be an emotional process.

STEPHANIE: You know, in the middle of the woods, if you're frustrated, you can just scream and no one's going to look at you like you're insane, and you just kind of let it go to the world and, you know, you go over it so many times in your head that you just get to a point where it doesn't hurt as bad and you can just start letting things go.

ROB: Tear down the wall.

STEPHANIE: Yeah.

Tear down the walls.

You know, in life we wear so many faces in public and so many masks in public.

And then, when you come out here, they’re stripped away.

THOMAS: Everyone's on the same playing field out here.

Everyone's got a backpack.

Everyone is sleeping in the dirt.

[laughter] STEVE: Everyone’s feet hurt.

THOMAS: So, everyone's your friend because you're sharing that same kind of bond.

You know, I don't think there's from what I have experienced, I haven't met too many people out here that I haven't considered a friend or someone that I've enjoyed meeting.

You know, in the real world, you could walk by that same person and they could be dressed completely differently than you and you wouldn’t give them a second look potentially or vice versa.

But out here everyone's kind of the same, so you make friends with everyone you meet out here.

And it kind of helps you along the trail, you know, the good nature of everyone out here.

ROB: I tend to try to hike a little bit faster so that I can hike on my own.

I get on my own a lot.

Gives me a little bit of solitude.

WILLEM: That solitude is found in many forms along the way.

It allows the veterans time to reflect on the lives they've lived.

Stephanie, you're looking at very somber.

Sort of reflective.

SHARON: It's hard being out here.

You know, as far as all of us we got two Marines, we got Army, we got Navy, we got Air Force.

We're like brothers and sisters out here.

WILLEM: Yep.

Sure.

ROB: We all have our good days and bad days too.

STEPHANIE: Yep.

So, you just reflect.

You know, it's not war.

It's not just war that we think about.

It's home.

It's people we've lost.

It's people we've loved and lost.

It's not just, you know, death, death and war and the horrors of war that you try to get over.

THOMAS: Just life in general.

STEPHANIE: It’s the relation- ships, the things you miss, the life that you missed because you chose to do this instead.

WILLEM: And the lives they look forward to.

STEVE: I’m trying to figure out how I'm going to cope with going back to screaming kids running through the neighborhoods and cars and horns and traffic and... It'll probably be a big adjustment.

It'll be a different kind of stress once I get back home.

ROB: Everything's just kind of all scrambled right now.

And... when I get home, everything will still be the same or the family life will be the same, but everything in my life will be different.

So, trying to come to grips with that and make sure I have not only a smooth transition from the trail, but not to have too much of a culture shock when I get home.

SHARON: My war was Desert Storm.

It was a long time ago, but this is so invaluable to young men and women who are coming home now, to be able to have the opportunity to, instead of going home and having to deal with things, come out here and, you know, like I said, decompress.

[Stephanie singing] All the stresses of work and family and bills, it just always seemed to help me after coming back home after a backpacking weekend.

I just felt completely decompressed.

WILLEM: Earl Shaffer, who inspired the Walk Off The War program, died in 2002.

He hiked the Appalachian Trail three times, the last at the age of 79.

ROB: I think about him all the time and... I don't know what the results were in his mind mentally, but I know he was very active in the trail even after he finished hiking, building shelters and helping with the development of the trail.

So, it must have affected him in a very positive way to be able to just stay with the trail from then on.

WILLEM: Along with the therapeutic benefits of being out on the trails, there's the reality of hiking day after day after day.

STEVE: This is harder because it's every day.

It's repetitive.

You wake up in the morning, hike, go to sleep, wake up the next morning, hike.

In the Marine Corps, we didn't do that.

It was maybe once or twice a week, if that.

STEPHANIE: We're more worried about the Whites right now, and getting through that.

because it’s short-term goals that you worry about, because Katahdin, you know, in the beginning was so far away that you had to be like, Okay, Neel's Gap, Hot Springs, Damascus.

You know, for me, it's short-term goals.

So, getting to the Whites, let alone getting through them.

THOMAS: No sense in worrying about Katahdin.

Yeah.

We're still like 400-plus miles away.

♪ ROB: I was in the military for 32 years, so I didn't get a whole lot of opportunities to do any long treks or anything.

I've been mainly just doing weekend hikes or day hikes up until this.

THOMAS: So, I'm always having a good time.

You know, it's not too often that I'm not.

PRODUCER: Are you a hiker?

THOMAS: Yeah.

I mean, I think I've always kind of, you know, I've always enjoyed the outdoors.

I've always enjoyed physically exerting myself.

And doing it out here, it's better than anywhere else that I've been so far, you know?

Just not really much to complain about out here.

[singing] WILLEM: For Tom, there's a personal reason to keep mount Katahdin in mind.

THOMAS: Some family members are going to be up there.

My grandfather's ashes are scattered on top of Katahdin.

And my uncles and couple cousins, maybe my brother, maybe my father, they're all going to be up there around the same time I'm summiting.

So, we might all get a chance to climb together and kind of pay our respects to the patriarch on my father's side of the family.

He was in the Navy; World War II veteran.

I haven't paid my respects to him since he passed away.

So, I've been kind of thinking, like, you know, I've been walking north to say hi to my grandfather for a while, but I haven't really given it too much thought just because you got to take one mile at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time, one meal at a time.

WILLEM: Perhaps you noticed a sixth walker with the group.

She's Heather Cochrane, a volunteer from Boston who helps the veterans on their way through New England.

HEATHER: Well, I think it's pretty spectacular, actually.

Yeah, I'm a vet, but I wasn’t active duty; I was enlisted when we had everybody going over to Afghanistan.

And, I don't know, there are just so many people coming back and they need something else, you know, more beyond the help that they get, you know, from regular doctors and that kind of thing.

And I think it's nice.

It gives them a goal and something to look forward to.

And then also, you know, shares nature, which I'm totally in tune with myself.

So, I think it's pretty spectacular that they're able to do it.

SHARON: Yeah.

Yes.

We have picked up quite a few friends, which has been great.

It's just been an incredible experience being out here for, you know, like I said, almost six months, and you just make wonderful friendships, learn a lot about each other, and learn a lot about yourself.

STEPHANIE: Nothing fresher than that!

HEATHER: It's pretty amazing.

I mean, you have, like, this great group of people that you I don't know, they're just like awesome individuals.

[stove burning] THOMAS: I'm just boiling some water to have some teriyaki chicken and rice.

HEATHER: They're coming from a diverse background.

They've had totally different experiences.

THOMAS: I’m going to eat it faster than you can say teriyaki chicken and rice.

[chuckling] HEATHER: But they have these great personalities that get to kind of shine through all of the other stuff that they have.

STEPHANIE: So, this is just water that I got from the stream before the hike, because there was no water up here, and then it just feeds right through and you can drink directly from it.

WILLEM: You've heard from some of the hikers about why they chose to walk off the war.

There are other benefits of the program.

It assists veterans with employment, raises money for transportation of wounded vets, and... SHARON: I would say, for any returning veterans who are coming home, I know how difficult it is to try and fit back in.

And, you know, that's one of the reasons why the suicide rate is through the roof.

You know, so many guys and girls are being redeployed because they can't fit back into society.

And a program like this you can use as a segway to just kind of get your head on right, make the transition back into civilian life, take the time to process the things that you need to process because it's hard.

I know when I came back when I was 23, I had a very, very difficult time.

I'm 47 now, and I dealt with that for a long, long time.

And I wish they would’ve had a program like this when I got home.

WILLEM: It's been a good day for me getting to know these men and women and a pleasure to hear their stories.

In 1948, after World War II, Earl Shaffer told a friend he was going to walk off the war.

He was the first person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.

Following in his footsteps, Rob, Sharon, Steve, Stephanie, and Tom continue what they hope becomes a tradition.

♪ SHARON: Look at that face!

ROB: That's the main reason why when I heard about the program, I jumped on it and I really wanted to be part of it because I knew that I'd be paying it forward for guys next year.

PRODUCER: And what about your hiking colleagues?

Do you stay in touch or will you?

STEVE: No, I'm going to forget about every one of them [chuckling] No, just kidding.

No, these will be lifelong friends, brothers, and sisters forever.

They're not getting rid of me.

STEPHANIE: We'll meet up WILLEM: Some of you lost friends?

[all nodding] STEVE: Lots.

WILLEM: That is tough.

THOMAS: Yeah, a lot of friends.

Actually, I have my radio operator on one team, he lost his legs above his knees, and... I tried to get him to do Warrior Hike, you know, with prosthetics.

He unfortunately wasn't able to, but that's because he's training on the Paralympic ski team.

So, he's out there making the best of things for himself.

But I'm still trying to get him to summit Katahdin with us.

We'll see how it goes.

But, you know, when that happened, that was a pretty, pretty traumatic thing for him and the rest of us to kind of watch him go through that because he was the kind of guy that, you know, did everything right and was the last person that you'd expect to kind of have to go through that kind of turmoil.

And I've lost all kinds of other friends that, you know, leave behind kids, wives, brothers, sisters, moms.

It sucks.

But... hopefully they're in a better place and we're out here maybe walking for them a little bit anyone we've lost.

WILLEM: Will this happen again next year, you think?

THOMAS: Annually.

ROB: That's the main reason why we are out here right now, you know, is kind of trying to pay it forward to the guys next year so that they have the funding, the sponsorship, and the support that they're going to need coming in.

WILLEM: Yeah.

♪ Well, we've come to the end of our hike together.

These guys are going to keep on going up the mountain behind me, and I'm going to go down.

That's why we all look so happy.

And we may even meet again.

Who knows?

Somewhere farther north, they're going to go on to Katahdin.

You'll only be there in a month or two.

Who knows?

Maybe less.

THOMAS: Less than a month!

WILLEM: That would be great.

So, we've come to that time once again when we have to say goodbye.

I'm Willem Lange, and I hope to see you again on Windows to the Wild.

♪