Veterans march from Auburn to Tuscaloosa during the annual Iron Ruck

AUBURN, Ala. (WTVM) – Taking to the streets for military service in east Alabama, nearly 100 military veterans are marching more than 100 miles from Auburn to Tuscaloosa as part of Operation Iron Ruck 2024.

Vets left Jordan-Hare Stadium on Wednesday morning.

“We raise awareness, build community and dig in. We enter this fight with our brothers and sisters and provide them with help if they need it,” said coordinator Bill Schwenk.

The annual Operation Iron Ruck is an event led by student veterans from Auburn University and the University of Alabama. The Iron Bowl is being held at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, which means the 251-mile journey, or ruck, will start at Jordan-Hare Stadium and end in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

“It’s not just about raising awareness. It’s about the connection and relationships built in the ruck. It was a student initiative,” Schwenk said.

Only 18 participants took part in the first Ruck in 2018. Currently, 93 veterans are on their way to Tuscaloosa.

Bill Schwenk is the coordinator of this year’s Operation Iron Ruck. He says he is living proof that the event works. He says he struggled with suicidal thoughts and the Lord led him to reach out to other veterans for help.

“He put it on my heart and I woke up the next day and called a few of the Iron Ruck guys and a few who had been through similar things. I told them I wasn’t in a good place and they rallied around me,” he said.

Each year, veterans wear 22-pound backpacks and wear nameless dog tags to symbolize the 22 veterans who take their own lives every day. Puck Esposito, director of the Auburn Veterans Resource Center, tearfully says Ruck is very personal after losing three veterans to suicide.

“These are our children and that’s why it’s so important. That’s why… That’s why we keep doing it,” Esposito said. “Every year it is important that this message reaches everyone.”

During the four-day trip, each student veteran will travel approximately 50 miles.