Annie Balthazar, of Fayetteville, recently completed an approximately 2,200-mile source-to-sea expedition of the Mississippi River in a canoe. A combat veteran, she made the trek for Warrior Hike, an organization that helps veterans recover from their war experiences by hiking scenic trails and, now, by paddling rivers.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A combat veteran herself, Annie Balthazar is passionate about helping military men and women returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. So when she got the opportunity to use another of her passions to find a way for them to deal with their post-traumatic stress disorder, she jumped — or rather, paddled — at the chance.
The 53-year-old Fayetteville resident recently paddled the entire Mississippi River. She traveled the river for the organization Warrior Hike, to help determine if returning veterans with missing limbs could complete it as a way of moving from their military service back into civilian society.
“It was the most challenging but rewarding thing,” she said.
Balthazar served in the Air Force from 1996 to 2007, and did a six-month tour in Iraq as a nurse anesthetist in 2005.
She remembers working in a tent ward full of children who had been wounded when schools and libraries were hit with bombs.
“It was devastating,” Balthazar said. “I’ve worked in shock trauma centers and nothing could have prepared me for my experience there…
