2,800-mile bike ride comes to close in Lynn

LYNN – He overcame leg cramps, steep mountain roads and forest fires to bike 2,800 miles and end up at Lynn City Hall on Sunday.But Thomas L’Italien said his goal to raise awareness of a “quiet, tragic epidemic” of suicide among military veterans is just beginning.”This can’t end at the end of one year; it’s got to continue on and on because this problem continues on and on,” L’Italien said to supporters while standing on the steps of City Hall Sunday afternoon.View a photo galleryL’Italien recited figures that a veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes; that more than 9,000 veterans had committed suicide since 2012; and more than 1,200 veterans had committed suicide since he began his bike ride in June. He also said 50 percent of veterans who commit suicides have another family member who commits suicide as well.”If 9,000 people died at once, we would pay attention to it,” L’Italien said. “The problem with the suicide rate is that it’s one [person] at a time so no one pays attention to it.”L’Italien, 63, started pedaling his Fuji Nevada mountain bike in Flagstaff, Ariz. on June 21. He was riding as a representative of the Team Veteran Foundation, a non-profit organization with a website declaring that “it is the duty and responsibility, as citizens, of all Americans to support our Veterans…”Fifty-one days after leaving Flagstaff, L’Italien arrived at City Hall at noon Sunday with a police escort. Friends and family awaited him with hugs (and water) and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy presented L’Italien with a citation. Lauren L’Italien, Thomas L’Italien’s wife, said she was most nervous the first day of the journey. Thomas L’Italien is 63 years old and, she said, “did not train for 15 years for this ride.” The heat of Arizona mountains in summer, the high elevation, and the brisk winds led to severe muscle cramps and a loss of electrolytes for her husband early on in the journey, she recalled.But help was at hand. A Native American recommended pickle juice; someone suggested quinine via the Team Veteran Foundation website; another person recommended pedialyte be added to the water in Thomas L’Italien’s camelback, Lauren L’Italien said. Then L’Italien ran out of water miles outside of Albuquerque, NM. A state trooper delivered a gallon of ice water, saying the troopers had been following his progress for four days, Lauren L’Italien recalled.”There’s story after story like that,” Lauren L’Italien said.In addition to the help, Thomas L’Italien reported picking up lots of support from families of veterans, some of whom had lost a loved one to suicide after that loved one returned from military service.”Everybody thinks that when veterans are coming home, it’s over,” L’Italien said. “It’s not over, it’s just beginning.”For Thomas L’Italien as well. He spoke of creating medical facilities for veterans surrounded by veterans’ housing; a Statue of Responsibility to be built on the West Coast and a national hotline for veterans suffering from suicidal thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder.”One of the biggest fights veterans have is coming back,” said Deon Smith, an Army veteran on hand to welcome Thomas L’Italien’s return. Smith said veterans needed to have access to quality psychological treatment and support.”If someone stands up for that, I’m going to be there,” Smith said.L’Italien said he was honored that veterans, members of the Lynn English Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps and citizens showed up to welcome him home.”It’s an honor for me to do this, it really is,” he said, of his ride. “I’m not a veteran, I knew I had to do something. Now we have to raise enough money to stop the suicides.”