Retired Marine from Montana walks 3,000 miles across the country to honor fallen soldiers

In a great example of capturing rural life, Vince Devlin has a story in the Missoulian about a Montana man who spent more than five months walking from Washington state to Washington D.C. to honor a high school friend who died in Vietnam in 1968. Chuck Lewis, a 62-year-old retired Marine from Ronan, walked "through blizzards, lightning storms, howling winds, pounding rain and sweltering heat...pushing a baby stroller in front of him filled with gear and supplies, and decorated with American and military flags," to get to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to see the name of his friend, and others who died in the conflict.

While making the journey across the country, Lewis found that American pride still exists, especially in rural areas, where dozens of people offered him a place to stay for the night, or gave him donations for a fund called www.walkingforthefallen.com, which tracked his progress throughout his journey. Many people also gave him items to leave at the wall for their fallen friends and family members. (Missoulian photo by Michael Gallacher)

Lewis told Devlin, "there are parts of Montana as well as North Dakota and Washington, where there are long stretches that you can look down the road for 10 miles, and see where you’ll be in three hours." The pinnacle of his trip, he said, came in Indiana, Devlin writes. Lewis told him, “A gentleman who’d seen a newspaper article about me came out to greet me, and told me, ‘I want you to know, you’re a true American,’ That really resonated with me, in the way I view myself. My mom was born in Spain. Technically, I’m 50 percent Hispanic, but I never check those boxes when I fill out forms that ask. I don’t believe in hyphenations. There’s a time for cultural diversity, but not at the expense of dividing our country. I’ve always felt if everyone saw themselves as American first, our country would be stronger.” (Read more)