Student veterans eat Thanksgiving meal halfway to Tuscaloosa as part of Operation Iron Ruck

DEATSVILLE, Ala. (WATCH) — Operation Iron Ruck sees veterans and active-duty military travel 251 miles to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention. On Thursday evening, these veterans also take time to share what they are grateful for during their Thanksgiving meal.

While it’s a long journey from Jordan Hare to Bryant Denny Stadium, they say it’s a significant journey. The veterans carry the Iron Bowl game ball and 22 dog tags. They are intended to honor 22 veterans who take their lives every day.

“There is no inscription on them because the idea is to remain anonymous. The thing is… these were the statistics when Operation Iron Ruck began,” said Ryder Burk of the Auburn Student Veterans Association. “And now we have seventeen, which is great.”

Before returning to the road, the veterans rested and enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal at Marbury High School in Deatsville. They talked about what the rucks meant to them.

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“We all know people,” said Chris-Enrique Vega-Marquez, a student veteran at the University of Alabama. “At the end of the day, the dream is not to meet people who have been through it. Because we don’t want that to happen. It’s not-it’s hard. It really is.

“There are always people down there looking after our country. And they are not with their families,” said John Burgess, a veteran student at Auburn University. “It’s not just about honoring them, but it’s all the other participants who helped us get to this point. Therefore, being away from our families means, in a sense, also honoring those who are not with their families.

Also in the same place is 78-year-old Ray Looney, who served in Vietnam. Regardless of the theater, he said the veterans have a lot in common.

“We all have stories about being somewhere we didn’t want to be, but having some Thanksgiving dinner together,” Looney said. “And that is the essence of our camaraderie.”

Bill Schwenk, Operation Iron Ruck coordinator, said this week is more than just a game.

“And you’ll hear people saying ‘War Eagle’ and ‘Roll Tide’ at the same time,” Schwenk explained. “And I think we secretly like hearing that, man. Because we know when they say it, it’s about more than just a game. This is about our family, man, and we really fight for it and fight for it.”

The expedition members said they would arrive in Tuscaloosa on Friday evening. They will deliver the game ball on Saturday, just before the Iron Bowl starts at 2:30 p.m

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