Lost on Veteran's Day Weekend

The young girl stared at the map. She’d been on the Gettysburg battlefield before, but she knew this time they were lost.

She and her grandfather only wanted to find Hancock Avenue, get past the Pennsylvania Monument, and find where a road intersected with that same avenue. Easy enough task, right? Well, she was finding it to be very difficult. They had found a parking spot at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, but now they had to walk to find the correct path.

Thankfully, her grandfather took the lead and easily found Hancock Avenue. Problem #1 solved. Now to find the PA monument and the other road.

The girl knew where the Pennsylvania Monument was, so that was no problem.

After walking down the path for a ways, they found the man they were supposed to meet: The person in charge of the walk for veterans, standing at the correct meeting spot: The intersecting road. Relief! Upon meeting up with a few others, the girl and her grandfather began their 3 mile walk to raise awareness for veteran suicides.

It was a beautiful day for it, and the girl was thankful for the wind blowing at her face. She breathed deep and was lost in thought as she passed her favorite part of the Gettysburg Battlefield; the field where Pickett’s Charge occurred. She quickly snapped a picture of a cannon, smiling as it turned out perfect despite their briskly-paced walk.

After a while of walking, her grandfather, a Navy veteran, began sharing stories with one of the men they were walking with; a career-colonel from the Army. She was enjoying every minute, but she grew a little nervous as they passed where they parked their car. The man in charge told them to stop where the car was, but she decided not to interrupt the stories being told behind her. Plus, she wanted to finish the walk.

As they went farther and farther from what she knew of the battlefield, she kept hoping that it would wrap back around, or finish quickly so the walk back to the car would be short. She even almost turned around before the walk was finished by mistake.

Finally! They met up at the ending point, and the man in charge told her that their group was actually 30 minutes early! Now the hard part: The girl searched for landmarks that she knew, for road names that she figured would take her back to the Cemetery. But no: Nothing looked familiar; actually, nothing looked the slightest bit familiar. The girl had NO idea how in the world she and her grandfather (just as lost as she, I might add) were going to get back to their car.

As a miracle is sent from God, the man in charge offered to drive them back to their car. What a relief! The next day, the girl began thinking that if she would’ve trusted God in the first place to pull them out, she wouldn’t have had need to fear.

Who was this young girl in the story? Yeah, it was me.  

The Saturday before Veteran's Day, (November 7th, 2015) my grandfather and I had the privilege of walking the last 3-mile leg of a 22-mile walk on the Gettysburg Battlefield. 40 veterans/soldiers participated, walking to raise awareness for the 22 Veteran suicides that happen every day in America. It was a lot of fun, getting to see the battlefield, but it was quite an experience to walk with the 5 men in our group: 2 were soldiers in training, 2 were Navy veterans (my Grandfather was one of those) and an Army veteran (the colonel). I felt somewhat out of place, but yet I was proud to be walking with the men serving our country upon the very field where 50,000 men gave "their last full measure of devotion" in 1863.

I had no idea what I was getting into, but I’m proud to say that I spent Veteran’s Day Weekend walking and getting completely lost on the battlefield with veterans.

Have a cool Veteran’s Day experience/memory? Or want to give a shout-out to an awesome veteran you know? Share it below in the comments!