walkforvets.org
John Mumby, a well-traveled U.S. Army veteran, dropped in to Fort Worth on Thursday afternoon for a little rest.
His visit brought to mind the day in 1897 when a gentleman by the name of Fred Miller came to town. Mr. Miller, like Mumby, was only here for a spell, on his way to El Paso from Pittsburgh.
On foot.
Miller was trying to set a world record as a long-distance walker, going the 1,800-plus miles. (Not sure if he made it. He was delayed somewhat by a run-in with the law after a night out in Hell’s Half Acre. If I walked from Pittsburgh to Fort Worth, I'd probably let my hair down a little, too.)
Mumby, a veteran of the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, is doing something similar. He’s walking from the Texas town of Waskom on the Texas-Louisiana border to the front gate of Fort Bliss in El Paso, 800 miles in total.
He started on Oct. 3 and plans to arrive at his destination on Nov. 30. His mission: Raise awareness of Gulf War Illness, which has plagued thousands of Gulf War veterans for more than 30 years, and funds for the Col. Bill Davis Research Fund in support of the research of Dr. Robert Haley at UT Southwestern.
Mumby made it to Fort Worth on Thursday. I caught up with him at the American Legion Post 626 on Burton Hill Road, which hosted him for a well-deserved sit down and dinner.
“My focus is to getting the message of Dr. Haley’s work across,” says Mumby. “But the reason I’m out here is for me. I need to be relevant again. I can’t just sit at home. One thing I can’t do is sit is because I have degenerative disc disease. That first reason is for me.”
To donate to the fund, go to engage.utsouthwestern.edu/donate-vets.
Mumby says he is one of hundreds of thousands who has been impacted by Gulf War Illness, which until only recently remained a mystery. In the years following the 1991 Gulf War, more than a quarter of the U.S. and coalition veterans who served in the war began reporting a range of chronic symptoms, including fatigue, fever, night sweats, memory and concentration problems, difficulty finding words, and chronic body pain.
Since then, both academic researchers and those within the military and Department of Veterans Affairs have studied a list of possible causes of GWI, ranging from stress, vaccinations, and burning oil wells to exposure to pesticides, nerve gas, anti-nerve gas medication, and depleted uranium.
Haley, an epidemiologist at UT Southwestern who has been studying the phenomenon for almost 30 years, recently released findings that at long last put many veterans’ minds, like Mumby, to ease, at least slightly. UT Southwestern and Haley got into the study at the urging — and financing — of Ross Perot, as passionate an advocate as there ever was for the veteran, in the mid-1990s.
Exposure to sarin gas has been identified as the culprit.
Haley’s research group found that veterans with exposure to sarin were more likely to develop Gulf War Illness. Moreover, they discovered that the risk was modulated by a gene that normally allows some people’s bodies to better break down the nerve gas.
Gulf War veterans with a weak variant of the gene who were exposed to sarin were more likely to develop symptoms of GWI than other exposed veterans who had the strong form of the gene.
“Quite simply, our findings prove that Gulf War Illness was caused by sarin, which was released when we bombed Iraqi chemical weapons storage and production facilities,” said Haley in May. “There are still more than 100,000 Gulf War veterans who are not getting help for this illness and our hope is that these findings will accelerate the search for better treatment.”
The next step in the study is how to remedy.
The conditions associated with Gulf War Illness have ruined lives. Many have been unable to work. Until now, without a firm conclusion, Congress has not fully addressed the disabilities associated with Gulf War Illness.
“What he’s doing is awesome because there isn’t much awareness for those guys. I have a lot of friends who are affected,” says Russell Jones, commander of the American Legion Post 626. “Whenever I go out to work and there’s a veteran there, there’s a 95% chance they were in the Gulf War and there’s a 95% chance they’re [messed up] from it. It just gets overlooked. That whole war gets overlooked.”
Mumby has 545 miles left to go after doing 15 on Thursday. As we spoke, he was eying a destination of Weatherford on Friday, a trip of 23 miles or thereabouts. He’ll be hosted by the American Legion there. He’s carrying a 45-pound backpack. He has had to use a dolly to push the 45 pounds. Torn up knees from an Army career as a paratrooper make the journey that much more challenging.
In all, Mumby spent 10 years active duty in the Army, plus two years reserve.
He has an itinerary for the walk, but a lot of planning is being done ad hoc.
Jones says three or four veterans at the post on Thursday chipped in to get Mumby a hotel room. They chipped in the room and then some. The “then some” is being donated to the fund, Jones says.
Mumby’s journey is being done in conjunction with walkforvets.org. You can follow Mumby’s walk on its Facebook page, where he posts pictures.
“Anybody that I come across, I’m promoting the website,” Mumby says. “If someone wants to stuff a $5 in my pocket to buy me lunch, I’m humbled.”
