Veteran building For the 22 initiative through partnerships and community action

“I returned home physically but my mind never left the battlefield.”

That was how Cody Hitson’s story began and, unfortunately, that is also the story of thousands of veterans and first responders.

To help those who served, and their families, Hitson started For the 22 to help provide resources and mobilize communities through campaigns that support the organizations serving them. 

The number 22 references the widely recognized symbol of veteran suicide awareness. It’s historically significant, but it isn’t the current national number — the VA’s most recent data (2023) puts the daily average at 17.5 veterans lost to suicide, and law enforcement, fire, EMS, dispatch, and corrections face a version of the same crisis with far less complete reporting. 

Hitson is a Navy veteran, husband, father, and endurance athlete who spent seven years on active duty as a mass communication specialist, deploying to Afghanistan in 2011 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as a combat journalist. 

After returning home, he spent years learning to function without dealing with what was underneath — a season that included major back surgery in 2016 and no clear sense of what came next. 

“It was difficult for me to be a functional member of society,” Hitson said. “Even things as innocuous as a car parked along a street … in my mind it could have been an IED (improvised explosive device).

“It doesn’t go away just because you left a war zone.”

A 2023 retreat with the Mighty Oaks Warrior Program became a turning point, redirecting his recovery around faith, responsibility, and purpose.

“Mighty Oaks provided one-week retreats for people to basically unburden themselves,” Hitson said. “We learned that what happened in our past doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how our future is mapped.”

For the 22 is an independent initiative designed to connect veterans, first responders, and families with support resources — and mobilize businesses, artists, athletes, and residents to support organizations already serving them.

Hitson said the program has three pillars:

• Connection – Connect people with vetted resources for veterans, first responders, and their families.
• Mobilization – Mobilize communities through endurance, music, and awareness campaigns.
• Impact – Direct support to confirmed nonprofit beneficiaries — donations go straight to them.

A resource directory includes nearly 1,700 vetted programs and services. The campaign network lists 21 partners, and its efforts have expanded from an endurance fundraiser into multiple campaigns, including Ruck For the 22, Tri For the 22, and a music-and-storytelling concept called For the 22: Live.

Last month, Hitson rucked the 11th annual RuckUp22 on the Aldridge Creek Greenway carrying his For The 22 mission for 22 miles in support of veteran suicide awareness. He’s training for the Ironman 70.3 in Chattanooga next May.

He said he also received good feedback for his For the 22: Live project. Bands such as Whiskey Myers, Muscadine Bloodline, Western Medicine and Scooter Brown Band have offered items for auction and to perform.

“I spoke with the Huntsville Music Officer to see about opportunities for For the 22: Live, a night of storytelling and music,” Hitson said. “We would have people on stage between sets, sharing their stories.

“(Music Officer) Matt Mandrella said ‘whatever the music office can do, we’re behind it.’”

Hitson’s website forthe22.org is a resource hub to connect to the charities and for information on the initiative. He set a $70,000 fundraising goal to support Mighty Oaks Foundation and Veterans & Athletes United, with donations directed to those beneficiary organizations.

Meanwhile, his battle within himself still continues, Hitson said. 

“I still have some emotional ticks, the same triggers,” he said. “But I now have the tools I need to help overcome them.

“Whenever I’m in doubt, I go back to my values – faith, family, fellowship, finances, fitness – in that order. This gives me a framework.”

Hitson said his mission is to recognize the sacrifice by veterans, first responders and their families.

“Let them know there’s hope in the future.”