Walking for wounded veterans

By the end of his Spring Break, Troy University freshman and Chelsea native William Pouncey had reached new levels of exhaustion. Instead of parties or hanging out on the beach, he had walked 128 miles over six days to raise money for injured soldiers.

Pouncey is a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at Troy. The fraternity’s annual charity fundraiser, called “Walk Hard,” involves fraternity brothers walking from the university campus to Panama City Beach. This year, 18 brothers finished the walk and raised more than $10,000 for Jeep Sullivan’s Wounded Warrior Outdoor Adventures, a charity that takes veterans on hunting and fishing trips to provide relaxation and healing.

“I feel like we had definitely make the best choice that we could make as far as philanthropy,” Pouncey said. “It’s not just a hunting trip. He’s helping people get their lives back together.”

Walk Hard required months of preparation and training. Even with fellow students providing support, food and water along the way, Pouncey said nothing could have prepared him for how painful the walk was. At the end of the first day, he was already as tired as he had expected to feel at the end.

“I’d say it was probably about 90 percent mental all the way because every step you take, you know the next one is going to be much worse,” Pouncey said. “I thought I was going through the worst part of my life.”

By the third day of walking, Pouncey said he had “quit caring about anything in the outside world,” including his fellow fraternity brothers and the charity he was walking for. However, two veterans walked with him the last mile of that day, despite the limbs they had lost to improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

“That really made it worthwhile there at the end,” Pouncey said, adding that the fourth day somehow became much easier.

He met other Jeep Sullivan veterans along the way and walked the last mile with his ATO brothers. Pouncey said people gave them strange looks for waving the ATO flag and playing AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” from a car radio, but all he could focus on was the fellow students cheering them on from the finish.

All 18 brothers then ran into the Gulf of Mexico, and Pouncey didn’t even care that the salt water stung his sore feet and joints. Although it took several weeks for the blisters and aching joints to fade, he said Walk Hard was worth it because the wounded veterans he had met were living with much harder circumstances.

“It was really nothing in comparison to what these people have to go through every day of their lives,” Pouncey said. “They don’t get to give up the fight and say, ‘I’m done having my amputated leg.’”

Pouncey is especially proud that his fraternity puts action behind its charity efforts instead of “just handing them a check.” The Troy ATO brothers are still gathering donations, which are expected to top $15,000 in total. Pouncey also plans to encourage more of his brothers to take the challenge next year.

He won’t be joining them.

“I will absolutely never do Walk Hard again. There is nothing that would ever make me do it again,” Pouncey said. “If you gave me $2 million, maybe I’d think about it.”