Minnesota veteran walks 1,000 miles to eclipse in Texas to spread hope

Just three years ago, Daniel Crawford could have never imagined that he would walk 1,000 miles across the country.

Crawford, 55, is a Marine veteran. On Feb. 3, he set foot on a journey from Austin, Minn., that has taken him through six states. On Monday, he watched the total solar eclipse from just outside Austin, Texas.

His mission wasn’t one of endurance, but to raise awareness for the Minnesota organization that changed his life and helped him get sober.

“There’s no possible, no possible thought in my mind that anything like this would have happened,” Crawford told MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about his walk. “I truly believed that I was gonna leave this earth with a bottle in my hand.”

Crawford was deployed three times, with the USS Iwo Jima in 1989-90 and during the Gulf War on the USS Guam in 1990-91 and a second time with the Iwo Jima in 1991-92. During the Gulf War, Crawford was also part of a military evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia.

During that time Crawford saw his fair share of death and destruction, which led to trauma. He got out of the Marines in 1995. That’s when an all-too-familiar veteran story unfolded for Crawford: He turned to alcohol.

“When I left the corps, I failed in life … I drank myself through my problems, I struggled,” Crawford said. He left his wife and kid, struggled to hold a job and experienced bouts of homelessness.

A federal survey from 2020 found 8.4 percent of veterans had alcohol use disorder.

For decades, Crawford tried detox and treatment programs, but he kept going back to the bottle. That was until 2022, when he found the Duluth-based charity 23rd Veteran.

Its name came from a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which found veteran suicides in the U.S. were at a staggering average of 22 per day. It was the most extensive study done on veteran suicide at the time. While that number has gone down to 17.5 per day on average in 2021, their mission remains the same.

“I specifically identify myself as the 23rd veteran, because at some point in my life, I decided to live,” said Crawford.

Crawford took part in their signature 14-week “23V Recon” program in 2022. The first week of the program is a trip completely unplugged, to help build trust. The remaining 13 weeks involve group fitness and positive-psychology sessions.

“After about eight or nine weeks of doing this with this trusted group that you’ve formed, you’re starting to see smiles come back, you starting to see people get out in the community where they normally didn’t,” said Crawford.

Crawford has been sober ever since completing the program.

“For me, it was a life-changing experience for sure.”

Crawford has dubbed his journey to Texas the “1,000-mile gratitude walk,” spreading his message of hope to the many people he’s met along the way.

He’s walked about 20 miles a day. Crawford has connected with people at Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts, American Legion posts, churches and Native reservations. He shares his story with them and sometimes, in turn, strangers share their struggles with him. That’s when Crawford feels like he’s made a difference.

Nearly 1,000 people have followed his journey on a Facebook group where he’s posted updates every day. He’s also raised more than $34,000 so far for 23rd Veteran.

Planning this walk around the eclipse does have some symbolism. The total eclipse brings a period of darkness in its path when the moon completely covers the sun.

“We’re going to experience the darkness, but the light is going to be coming back. And we have to be there to see that,” said Crawford, “and we have to be there another 10 minutes, another hour or whatever it takes.”