In an extraordinary accomplishment, US Navy veteran Jason Hanner will complete his walk across the state of Nebraska on Sunday, Nov. 20. Once over the Missouri River on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, Hanner will have finished a walk that began on Sept. 23 by the Wyoming border.
Before that though, Hanner, who is a Nebraska native, will be passing through Lincoln. He won’t be staying long, however, even though he does keep his walking to weekends and works his job throughout the week.
Regarding his crossing of the capital, Hanner tells KLIN that he’ll be “starting at the Casey’s there in Woodlawn, Nebraska walking through Lincoln with the end result near Waverly on Saturday. And then Waverly to the Gretna area on Highway 6 on Sunday.”
But why walk such a long way? For Hanner, it’s much more than a recreational pastime. Hanner walks to raise awareness on the myriad of troubles that American military veterans face. Many veterans live lives filled with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, addiction, and even suicide.
“We do a really good job from a country aspect shipping young kids off to war, to serve in war, regardless of branch,” says Hanner. “But we don’t do a great job really re-acclimating them and putting them back into society into that civilian sector and taking care of them there.”