Traumatized Ex-soldier Killed Trying To ‘find Peace’ On The Appalachian Trail

The physical injuries kept Ronnie Sanchez Jr. from moving as fast as he wanted on the Appalachian Trail, but it was the unseen wounds that almost made him quit. After 16 years in the Army and three tours in Iraq as a combat engineer, it took the 43-year-old veteran years to emerge from a cloud of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that had kept him locked up in his house in Oklahoma City and avoiding other people. But he did it, little by little, slow and determined, by rediscovering his love of the outdoors.