A popular navigation software app says it’s a 2,612-mile car ride from San Diego, California to Jacksonville, N.C.
A former Marine is making the trip on foot to raise awareness about men’s mental health.
Dalton Mack is a veteran Marine with a mission to get men to start opening up about their mental health. He passed through Columbus County this week. He partnered with “Movember,” the self-named organization that transformed November into the month when men grow mustaches (mo’s) to raise awareness (and funds) in support of men’s health issues, especially the growing mental health crisis.
“So, what kind of put the idea (in my head) for this instead of running a marathon or handing out flyers or whatever was I felt like I was too comfortable in my regular life… I need to do something, and I want to put a cause to it,” Mack said. “If I’m going to put myself through all that pain, I want to bring attention and somebody to benefit from what I’m doing. That’s when I tied in the loss of my friends and mentor.”
He started his journey on April 23 on the California Coast with a bright red cart, some banners stating his mission’s intent, and a few supplies that he could haul along as he made his way down the highway, and that was it. For nearly seven months, he’s been putting more miles behind him as he’s worked closer to the East Coast, and his finish line where the Atlantic Ocean washes the shores of Surf City.
It’s easy to see the passion behind his commitment to the walk. For Mack, getting underway allowed him to open up about his own battles.
He spoke about sharing what he considers to be “the darkest year he’s had” only one hundred miles into his walk. In his eyes, he couldn’t take up this torch if he couldn’t be vulnerable, too.
“A month before that, not something I would’ve went and told random people. But I wanted to be the example of ‘you can talk about this stuff’.”
As he’s made his way across the country, others have also opened up to him about their own battles. Mack has stopped to listen to them all.
Mack’s story is a heavy one. He’s lost friends and his mentor to the silent struggles of mental health. But his own fight in the dark has made his mission that much more personal.
Mack said he wanted to be Pararescue since he was thirteen, but after talking to several recruiters, he joined the Marines where he worked his way into the selection process for the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Unfortunately, his mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer about the same time and he and his wife were struggling in a relationship that ultimately ended in divorce. The burdens he carried through his training period ate at him, and despite being selected for Raider pipeline, he was unable to complete it and was shortly dropped from the program.
“All that was going through my head was I just wasted five years that I could’ve been home with my mom to chase this dream… I lost my wife, [my mother] was going downhill—I wasn’t there for it— my dream that I wanted since I thirteen, out the window, so that was a real big spiral of finding my place.”
A few months after this, his mother passed away. It was the thought of not completing his training, something he’d worked for since he was thirteen, along with the loss of his wife and mother that led to thoughts of regret and feeling like he’d wasted his time. He said he hadn’t even fully processed his grief at his mother’s funeral, convincing himself that he needed to show strength for everyone else in his family.
“I refused to cry during the funeral. I wouldn’t cry, I wanted people to be able to look at me and say, ‘I can get through this because Dalton’s getting through this. It’s his mom; if he can sit there and not be distraught by it, so can I.’ I was trying to be strong for my uncles who had lost their sister, my aunts who had just lost their sister, cousins, father, everybody… so I never got to fully process.”
These unprocessed thoughts, coupled with the weight of despair he was holding onto, led to thoughts of suicide. He says he didn’t want to do it, but he seriously contemplated taking his own life.
Instead, Mack opened up to the world in an effort to save others from stumbling into the same pit. He said he recognizes the importance of having a support system and opening up in moments of silent struggling.
He talked about how the coast-to-coast journey reflects the mental health journey many people also take. He started off funding this trip completely on his own but hit a bump in the road when the money ran out as he made it to Oklahoma.
“I had to make a decision which was even, I would say, harder than the initial telling people what the hardest year of my life was because I had to sit there and look at potential failure and say ‘hey, I’m out of my own money; this is crowd-funded from this point forward’.”
Six pairs of shoes, five strollers, and several states later, he’s made it to the last leg of this epic tale. Mack has found everything from financial support to food and shelter along the way, and coming from everyone: strangers, volunteers, and every fire station that was in his path.
“I could’ve never expected passing through Arizona I would call a lady that I just texted this morning letting her know I was in North Carolina. I met her in Arizona and she let me sleep in her horse stable because I was passing through and I was at about 26 miles and my s— was hurting so I gave a call to a random horse clinic and was like here’s who I am which at that time… there was a few posts I had made, but no news coverage, no fire stations could vouch. It was a random act of kindness of just some lady being like ‘Well, I’m here by myself, my husband’s passed. If you’re ok with sleeping outside, the property’s big enough.’ And I was like, absolutely. So, slept in her horse stable; it’s Miss Christine. I text her at every border I cross—she’s an awesome lady. I just could’ve never expected things like that.”
As he’s traveled through each state, Mack has become more confident in his mission and the idea that “we need to talk to each other more.”
“We may be different states, and different borders, and upbringings, but as far as men go, we’re not that different. We all deal with the same stuff, we’re all taught ‘suck it up, no one cares,’…but everybody I’ve talked to unanimously has been in agreement that it just needs to be talked about more.”
Mack said many people have approached him to open up about their own struggles. He’s taken the time to listen to everyone who’s taken the time to stop.
“I’ll stop the walk for the day if you just want to sit in the park. I’ve done that, it’s been great to do. If I can spend one sitting and talking to someone and that keeps them going, that’s fine with me. That’s been the coolest part of it all, especially when guys have been ‘I’ve never told anybody this and it’s ate me alive X number of years.’…I’m like get it out, man; I can’t relate, but I can listen… I’ve had a lot of people put a lot of stuff, a lot of faith in me, and that’s been the best part for me, ’cause I’m a random guy, like they’ll never see me again, and maybe that’s what they needed.”
The conversation never stops, and for this Marine, it’s a conversation that needs to grow until it includes us all.
Mack passed through Columbus County over the weekend, about a week away from his journey’s end. He stopped off at the fire houses in Fair Bluff, Whiteville, and Bolton on his way to Surf City.
Once he reaches the coast, Mack said, he plans to fly home, as he’s done enough walking in the last seven months to last him a while.
“3,000 miles is definitely my upper limit!”
The long trip across the United States has had an effect on him. Mack plans to go home and begin looking into becoming a firefighter. The most impactful part of this trip for him has been how his view of the country has changed upon seeing as much of it as he has.
“When I started, I definitely didn’t have a positive view of, I’ll just say, Americans, humanity—however you wanna look at it, just people in general. I figured it was all pretty selfish and just nobody would care. I could’ve never expected the level of support I ended up getting from random people along the way.”
To support Mack on the final leg of his journey, and to support the Movember movement, go to his individual GoFundMe as well as the fundraising page at Movember’s website. The links are https://www.gofundme.com/f/raise-awarness-for-mens-mental-health and https://us.movember.com/donate/details?memberId=14973660
To reach out for help in a mental health crisis, the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number is 988. For veterans in need of assistance, press option 1.
