I have never met Eddie.
He contacted me from Montana before he decided to make the journey. He asked if I would help him get some support from The American Legion National Headquarters. What he did not understand is the fact that The American Legion is a true grassroots organization, and we cannot endorse any individual or cause without a resolution passed by the local state and national membership. Because of this constitutional restriction, I was not able to secure any kind of official sponsorship for his journey.
I urged that he reconsider his quest. Perhaps it would be better if he waited and let the local Legion post take his initiative to its members for a vote and then forward the process to the state. At least then he would have been recognized and would have had some help to his mission.
I never had a chance to change his mind. I remember his words clearly, “I am going to do this for me. I lost some friends in this war, and I want to see those people we had sworn to defend. I won’t give up.”
I wrote a official response to his written request for support from The American Legion. In my letter I encouraged Eddie to visit each and every American legion Post he encounters and meet our members in person. Even though the national entity cannot endorse his quest, I have faith that our fellow veterans in the local communities will not abandon this young Marine.
So, in summer of 2008, Eddie took his first step in Montana. With little money, no real plan of support, entirely trusting on the good will of this nation and the spirit of its people we had sworn to defend with our own lives, he set out to walk the parameter of this great nation.
