Veteran running to Indianapolis to raise awareness on military suicides

Veteran running to Indianapolis to raise awareness

Posted: Jan 16, 2012
By Matt Barbour, Reporter

Cpl. Cory Smith. Photo by Doug Strickland (Times Free Press).

CHATTANOOGA -
(WRCB) -- Corporal Cory Smith calls Indianapolis home. By car or plane, the trip from Ft. Benning, Georgia would be easy. But Smith is pounding the pavement for hundreds of miles all for a good cause.

We caught up with Corporal Cory Smith, as he made his way through Chattanooga.

He says he is running for two reasons. One is to get back home to his baby daughter. The other is to help other veterans in need.

Smith, who has served almost four years as an Army Ranger, says veterans coming back home face so many challenges.

"Every 80 minutes in America, according the Veteran Affairs, there's a veteran suicide and only nine states actually claim those suicides," says Smith.

He says he has faced some challenges himself.

"You're kind of in this closed world where everybody kind of takes care of you in the military, but when you get out, you know, you're lucky even to have your parents around to take care of you," he says.

Smith says once he got back home, things were much rockier than expected. His wife left his home with his young daughter and he said he knew he had to do something to keep going.

"All I had left was an air mattress and a television. And that was it. And just a whole lot of emptiness inside," says Smith.

That is why he started running.