Veteran walks 2,200 miles cross country to bring awareness to veteran suicide

Mike Opelka welcomes U.S. Army veteran Ernesto Rodriguez to the program to discuss his cross-country trek on foot to raise awareness for veterans' mental health issues.

Ernesto, who has fought valiantly against social anxiety disorder since his four tours in the Middle East, is undertaking this journey from Clarksville, TN to Los Angeles, CA over a period of three or four months.

The 2,200-mile trip is meant to bring awareness to the fact that on average, 22 American veterans take their own lives each and every day. Every 100 miles along their journey, Ernesto transmits a Facebook Live video highlighting the story of one of these brave warriors.

"These people didn't lose their life in combat," Ernesto points out. "They didn't lose their life serving this country. And these are people that I served with. Not all of them — a good amount of them I served with. And we saw bullets fly, and, you know, we went through the hell of war. And they came back and still thought that that (suicide) was the only option. That was the only way out for them. Because of lack of — in my opinion, it's lack of mental health treatment for these veterans that come back and really do need help."

To see more from Mike, visit his channel on TheBlaze  and listen live to “Pure Opelka” weekdays 7–10pm ET & Saturdays 6–9am ET on TheBlaze Radio Network.