We recently filled the entire Gold Star Peak trail and summit with more than 450 Active-Duty Paratroopers, Veterans, Community Partners, Civilians, as well as a full visiting film crew. The climb was amazing and impacted every single person in their own private way.
Several carried ID tags, pictures, unit patches, coins, and hero bracelets of the fallen. Most all carried the memory of a fallen brother or sister that made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom. On the summit, we all gathered, said their names out loud and shared a moment of silence.
The day after the climb, a Veteran who traveled with a buddy to Alaska for the week and to specifically climb with us, reached out telling me of his struggles to reach the summit both physically and emotionally as he carried the memory of some of his fallen friends, and the hero bracelet of Army SSG Chad W. Lake with him.
He found a stick on the trail that he used for the day to help him up and down the mountain. He told me the climb was “inspirational and I got to honor some of my fallen friends. I made it! Barely…But, I made it. I also made some progress on myself. For that, I’ll be eternally grateful. Thank you.”
The next day, he went to a local tattoo shop and had the artist recreate an image of the stick he carried by tattooing it on his forearm as a forever memory of his day on Gold Star Peak honoring his friend. His journey and follow-on act made me so very proud.
What we know and continue to see firsthand is this mountain heals.
Say their Names: SSG Chad W. Lake