California Legionnaire Robert Hess promoting the suicide prevention program over 21 days and 5,000 miles, stopping at Legion posts along the way.
California Legionnaire Robert Hess has dealt with his own demons.
The 25-year member of the U.S. Army with service in Vietnam during the war, Hess has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Once he dealt with that, he turned toward trying to help others in similar situations.
That’s one of the reasons Hess, a life member of American Legion Post 291 in Newport Harbor, has spent part of the past two summers driving across the country promoting The American Legion Be the One veteran suicide prevention mission.
Hess launched his first effort last summer, and this year on Aug. 2 he departed the Los Angeles area and will wind up traveling 21 days across 5,000 miles on the Medal of Honor Highway. His journey will end later this month at Fort Belvoir, Va. Follow Hess’s journey here.
“I call myself a PTSD survivor and a PTSD graduate,” Hess said. “My combat time was back during the Vietnam era, but I wasn’t diagnosed with PTSD until eight years ago.”
That’s when Hess was asked by VA mental health worker to write a journal of his experiences while in Vietnam. It took Hess a month, and he said the result “was very cathartic.”
Years later, Hess saw the launch of The American Legion’s Be the One program and decided he wanted to provide a similar cathartic experience for other veterans who may be battling PTSD.
“What I’m trying to do is connect vets to these resources: to the VA or the Legion, and help carry this message,” he said. “That this stuff may be subliminal. You may be carrying it along all this tension and you don’t know it. And that there are easy ways to connect with the community.”
Hess has a love for cars that dates back to his time in service in the late 1960s with the purchase of a Porsche 911. That love led him to form his Rally4Vets program, which annually puts on the Top Dog Motorsports Competition at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. It’s a time-trials race between military branches that will take place on Oct. 12.
He’s currently driving a 2007 C6 Corvette during his journey across the country and making stops at Legion posts along the way. Hess said during many of his stops at posts he’s seeing Be the One being introduced at the local level. But his journey also has been about carrying the message to the media and raising awareness with those who don’t know about the program.
“I’m touching as many as I can,” he said. “And I’d like to do more.”
Hess also is usually the drive to attempt to connect younger veterans with the Legion. “These are young guys and young gals that I think we need to reach with this message,” he said.
Be the One resonates with Hess, who feels it’s the ideal program to stem the tide of veteran suicide.
“I think it’s spot on,” he said. “Every guy, from Day 1, especially if you’re veteran, you don’t show emotion. In my day the slogan was ‘Take a Darvon and drive on.’ So, we talk a lot about this emotion stuff, but the best way is still connecting one on one and asking that question. That’s why what the Legion is doing is so important. And now they’ve connected with Columbia University for the Be the One training.
“It’s a checklist. Just ask the questions. It’s important. It’s practical. I think this is one of the most important things that the Legion can be doing.”
- Be the One