Military veteran walks across America to bring awareness to veteran suicide
Military veteran Jimmy Novak
is walking 22 miles a day for 22 weeks to bring awareness to the 22
estimated veterans who commit suicide every day.
Posted: Jul 16, 2019 10:49 PM
Updated: Jul 17, 2019 10:10 AM
Speech to Text for Military veteran walks across America to bring awareness to veteran suicide
Below is the closed-captioning text associated with this video. Since this uses automated speech to text spelling and grammar may not be accurate.
miles... every day....for in 22 weeks... a veteran who has
served on a peacekeeping mission to kosovo and two combat tours to iraq
is spreading awareness of veteran suicide... by walking through
america. one of his stops here in north mississippi. wtva's taylor smith
joins us live in baldwyn where she has the latest on this mans
journey... emily we all know the movie forrest gump... and the quote "i
just felt like running" comes to mind in this story... in this case,
jimmy novak just feels like walking... and walking and walking... i am
at the american legion post 130 in baldwyn now where jimmy decided to
take a little break from all his walking to tell me his story... sot: "i
was inspired by a tribe of australia tradition of taking a walk as a
coming of age, and i was inspired by the holy men in the bible going out
into the wilderness to seek god and reflect and meditate..." jimmy
novak was inspired to make a difference to veterans all over america as
he was heading into retirement unsure of what he his next step was... so
he did what every one does... well maybe not everyone... sot: "i
pitched the idea to my wife that i wanted to take a little walk...and
she thought it was a great idea so here i am walking 3,000 miles in
support of veterans with ptsd and veteran suicide... after serving for
21 years, novak has had personal experience holding in these
struggles... he did not want others to do the same thing... sot: "i am
an anxious depressive, and i have had a couple of times where i have
struggled with suicidal thoughts myself, and i handled it all wrong i
kept in and went to work tried to act normal because i was afraid of
what people would think of me..." and now novak is walking 22 miles
every day for 22 weeks to honor the 22 estimated veterans that commit
suicide every day... his journey started on march 22 and has not always
been easiest. sot: "there are days where i just get wet, and then there
are some days where i just get cold." but he pushes through sot: "what
do you do while your walking? i think a lot and i play the alphabet
game... i am still stuck on x from the last time i played... i also just
listen to music and try to enjoy the different states i'm in." every
state and every town welcoming him with open arms, until he reaches his
final destination on august 22nd where he will end his jounrey in the
happiest place on earth... sot: "i planned it because it's my birthday,
and i wanted to be in disneyland on my birthday." and at the end of his
little walk... he hopes to have got this message across to his fellow
veterans... sot: " in the end, getting help is just walking distance;
it's just putting one foot in front of the other one step at a time."
novak is two-thirds of the way done with his journey... he will continue
through the south walking on average of way done with his journey... he
will continue through the south walking on average of about 3 miles an
hour... all of the funds he has leftover from his journey will be
donated to support the american foundation for suicide. live in baldwyn
taylor smith wtva nine news still ahead on wtva nine news at ten,
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