I never met the Marine Corps machine-gunner: a fun-loving Californian who was known by friends as “Chachi.” But on an unseasonably cool night roughly five-and-a-half years later in May 2017, I would be forever connected to him. That’s when my friend, Marine veteran Alec Reisberg, handed me a patch with Chachi’s last name emblazoned on it.

Who do you ruck for? It’s a question that everyone who participates in Heroes In Transition’s Ruck4HIT asks themselves.

Seven years ago, on the eve of the 2nd Annual Ruck4HIT, Reisberg, who had made the flight from California to Massachusetts to captain our team, was helping answer that question for me. Over the course of 36 hours, a stranger named Joshua Corral—who enlisted in the Marines “because he wanted to make a difference,” Arnie Corral said at his son’s funeral—was my reason why. 

Words don’t do Ruck4HIT justice. It’s the type of event you must see for yourself.

I’ve had the honor of driving in it and watching in awe as a teammate dons a 20-pound rucksack at 3:00 in the morning and sets out on a 2.7-mile run. By this point, participants have run as many as six legs of similar distance and are physically exhausted and mentally fatigued.

They may not know Joshua Corral, but they are running for heroes like him.

On October 26, 2009, Cyndy Jones and her late husband, Kenneth, lost their only son, Marine Captain Eric A. Jones, when he was killed in a helicopter crash while flying a combat mission in Afghanistan. The couple channeled the grief of that tragic loss into a force for good by creating Heroes In Transition.

The Mashpee-based nonprofit’s logo features a hand holding a torch. It’s a symbol of Eric’s light carried on by the organization through its work providing critical assistance to local service members, veterans, and military couples, spouses, and families via a dozen different programs.

And so, too, is the rucksack a symbol of the heavy burdens carried by service members, veterans, and their loved ones. For one weekend every spring, Ruck4HIT participants carry that weight for them.

Last year, Army veteran Meghan Keller of Plymouth shared with me what the rucksack means to her: “Seeing that ruck, I get so emotional. I think to myself, My god, I can put my ruck down because other people want to be out there carrying that weight and the load for others. That was so huge for me, seeing how many people involved in it who really have no ties to the military and have never served but who are out there carrying this load. I can finally put my load down because someone else will carry it for me.”

This April, Keller, who has supported participants in their training for the past two years through her job at FitPlan Cape Cod in Mashpee, will be running her first Ruck4HIT. Keller’s why? Her late husband, Kurt. They served in the Army together, including a 2003 deployment to Iraq in 2003. She lost him to suicide in November 2006.