When You Can’t Go On, Grab Somebody Else’s Ruck and Carry It For Them

Author’s Note:
In an interview on the “5 Questions for a General” podcast, West Point’s commandant, Brigadier General R.J. Garcia, recounted an incident from his days as a cadet. During a particularly grueling foot march along a hill aptly named Stoney Lonesome, a random passerby told him: “when you think you can’t go any further, grab somebody else’s ruck and carry it for them,” and he never forgot it. This is a reflection on that quote.

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There comes a point in every warrior’s life—whether on the battlefield, in the boardroom, or in the depths of silent suffering—when the weight becomes too much to carry alone. Your knees buckle, your will cracks, and the voice in your head whispers that you’re done. Mission failure feels imminent. You can’t go on. Your ruck is just too heavy.

And that’s the moment you shift your focus.

That’s because in that very instant—when you can’t go on—you look left, you look right, and you realize you’re not the only one hurting. You see a brother or sister whose pain mirrors your own. And that’s when you reach down, grab their ruck, and throw it over your shoulder.

When you can’t go on, when your load is too heavy, the distance is too far, your body is too far gone, you don’t ask for someone to shoulder your load. No. You grab someone else’s ruck and carry it. Not for yourself, but for them. Not because it’s light. Not because it’s easy. But because it’s right.

This isn’t just about literal weight. This is about emotional burdens, trauma, stress, guilt, grief. It’s about the unseen weight so many carry long after the shooting stops. When we feel like we’re drowning in our own struggle, helping someone else swim becomes the lifeline we didn’t know we needed.

That act—carrying someone else’s load—is the embodiment of service, leadership, and brotherhood. It rewrites the mission from me to we. And in doing so, we find renewed strength, a flicker of purpose, a reason to take the next step. And in helping others, we help ourselves.

Some of the strongest among us are the ones quietly carrying rucks for others. They see someone faltering and shoulder more, knowing full well what it means. That strength isn’t found in accolades or rank. It’s found in selfless acts, in the willingness to bleed so someone else doesn’t have to.

I think the “carry another’s burden” attitude is so appropriate and so helpful for the veteran community, specifically those of us who are still trying to find our second mission after military service. And especially those who struggle with anxiety, depression, and urge to become one of the 22 a day. So if today’s the day you feel like you can’t go on, look around. You’re still here. You’re still breathing. And that means you’ve still got one more mission: pick up someone else’s ruck.

Because in lifting them, you just might save yourself.

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Charles Faint served over 27 years in the US Army, which included seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with various Special Operations Forces units and two stints as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also completed operational tours in Egypt, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea and earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Temple University as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University. He is the owner of The Havok Journal, and the views expressed herein are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or any other person or entity.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.