Marine On Personal PTSD Journey Gets Warm Welcome At The Jersey Shore

Nick Beadles says he was trying to figure out his life and what he wanted to do with it when he decided one day that he would walk across the United States.

"I never walked before," Beadles said Monday as he prepared to set out for another day of his journey across the country to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder and how it affects veterans and first responders.

Beadles is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Iraq 20 years ago and has experienced the impact of PTSD. It's affected him personally, and he has lost friends who took their lives because of what they experienced during their service.

"They live with it every day," he said.

He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, but this spring decided it was time to do something for his health, both mental and physical.

"There was a lot that led up to this," he said as he sat at the Manchester Volunteer Fire Company's firehouse. "I thought, am I going to stay the way I am or am I going to do something about it?"

"It's a personal journey for me," Beadles said.

So he told his wife and daughters he was going to walk from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. He ordered camping gear and supplies and headed off to Maine in May.

"I chose Maine because when we returned from Iraq, we landed in Bangor, Maine," Beadles said. "The whole town was there to welcome us. I wanted to go back.

Beadles has a rough route laid out but says it isn't a hard-and-fast plan beyond the idea of seeing America, especially the back roads, the farm towns and meeting the people who make up the country.

"I just started walking on May 30th because I said I was going to do it," he said, and the first day he walked 23 miles. "I was hurting the next day," he said with a laugh.

Since then he walks four or five days in a row, pushing a cart with his camping gear and food and water as he goes, then takes a day off to recuperate.

Beadles said he headed south to New Jersey at the suggestion of an administrator of a Facebook page in the Kennebunkport area of Maine, where he spent a night camping at a campground.

"She said, 'If you come down to the Jersey Shore let me know, we'd like to welcome you," Beadles said.

He worked his way south down Route 1, through Connecticut and into New York, where he was welcomed into the Co-OP City firehouse in the Bronx, invited by there by a Marine he served with.

He arrived in Monmouth Beach on June 24. That's when he learned the woman who invited him to the Jersey Shore was Maureen Somers, wife of Monmouth Beach Mayor Tim Somers.

The borough welcomed him with open arms.

"His goal is to meet the people he went to war to defend," Tim Somers, who joined Beadles for a portion of his journey, wrote in a post on the Monmouth Beach borough's Facebook page. "He wants to call attention to the simple act of reaching out to those who may need a kind word or a person to speak with in their time of crisis. He also would like our government to pay more attention to this issue with veterans. As a nation we should be doing more for these dedicated soldiers who risked it all for us. We are falling short of our responsibility and it's time all of us recognized it."

From Monmouth Beach Beadles has worked his way south stopping in several towns along the way, including Asbury Park, Manasquan, Brielle, Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Brick Township and Seaside Heights, before heading east to Manchester. He's been gifted patches and challenge coins and shirts by multiple police departments and fire companies. He's had pizza at some of the best pizza places along the Jersey Shore.

"The mayor in Manchester brought me a pork roll and cheese," Beadles said.

On Saturday he took part in the tug-o-war between the Seaside Heights and Seaside Park fire companies, and there also have been people making donations to help defray the costs of his travels.

"New Jersey absolutely took care of me from the second I got here," he said, from putting him up in firehouses to walking with him for part of the journey.

Beadles comes from a family of Marines — his grandfather, father, uncle, two brothers and a sister-in-law all have served in the Marine Corps.

"It definitely shaped me and changed me," he said. It has taught him to be self-sufficient.

The outpouring of support has caught him a bit off-guard, and he is grateful for it. It's meant staying in some better places than cheap motels in questionable spots, he said, laughing.

He doesn't want to lose sight of his goal of raising awareness of PTSD and of Mission 22, an organization that assists veterans struggling with it.

It has had an impact in his own life.

"I've been married three times since I was 18," Beadles said. Now, "I am married to my best friend," he said. They have four daughters, ages 17, 18, 19 and 25.

"They definitely made me a man," Beadles said. "I’m very honored to be their dad – they changed me."

His wife and daughters are supporting his walk across the country, which he said is an opportunity for self-examination even as his efforts garner attention.

On Monday he had a short day, walking 8 miles from the Manchester Volunteer Fire Department's firehouse to the Whiting Fire Company's firehouse — complete with an escort of fire trucks. His plan is to be in Philadelphia by Friday, where he is expecting to meet up with more Marines he served with and spend July 4th weekend.

After Philadelphia, he has a planned break for about a week as his wife is flying in from Phoenix to join him as they work at the Gettysburg Bike Week, an event for motorcyclists in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

After that, he expects to resume his walk, covering as many miles as he can before he has to fly to Dallas in November for a reunion he is helping to organize of a group of his fellow Marines.

While the attention and support he has received in New Jersey has been heartening, Beadles said he is looking forward to walking alone again.

"Eventually I’ll be back on the long farm roads. It will give me the time to soul search," he said.

The reception he's received has taken him by surprise.

"I'm just a guy from Arizona," Beadles said. "I’m meeting America’s greatest people. I'm getting to see America in a whole different way."

That especially goes for New Jersey.

"Jersey gets a bad rap," Beadles said, then added with a laugh, "and you guys should keep it that way."

You can follow his journey on his Facebook page or his Instagram account. His Venmo and Cash App information in is the bios of his accounts.

Learn more about Mission 22 or donate to the organization on its website.