Members of the NYPD’s Mounted Unit will escort veterans on a 20-mile horseback ride through Manhattan Saturday to raise awareness of military suicides — back after a year-long COVID hiatus, officials said.
“I think it’s great for everyone’s morale that we’re getting back to normal and that we can actually see each other again and do these events,” said Deputy Inspector Barry Gelbman, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Mounted Unit. “I know that they were very disappointed last year.”
The annual “Trail to Zero” ride signifies the 20 veterans who commit suicide daily on average — and the ride’s goal of getting to zero suicides, officials said.
Gelbman, riding his NYPD horse Fantan, will be among a dozen officers accompanying the six veterans and two support riders from BraveHearts, an equine program meant to aid veterans with their transition back to civilian life. BraveHearts sponsors the event.
Gelbman said he’s involved in the program because he feels that horses have a calming effect on all people.
“Anyone in a high pressure occupation de-stresses when they’re around animals,” Gelbman said.
The majority of the officers who volunteer to assist on the trail are either veterans or still active military members.
That includes Lieutenant David Monzon, 40, an active U.S. Army Sergeant First Class, who served in Iraq in 2009. Monzon, who will be riding Montana, looks forward to welcoming back the other veterans for his third year with the ride.
The camaraderie of the brotherhood and sisterhood associated with the ride is a “good bonding experience,” he said, adding that riding is “very comforting.”
“I would say the easiest part of my day is riding a horse,” he said. “You can forget all your problems.”
Gelbman said the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks also play a role in the ride.
“The significance of New York City is that the September 11 attacks were the catalyst for a lot of these veterans who enlisted in the military.” Gelbman said.
“So for them to ride to Ground Zero and back to Central Park is very significant,” he said. “A lot of them never were in New York City, it’s their first trip here, and to actually go down and see the memorial and see the Freedom Tower is, you know, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
Meggan Hill-McQueeney, president/COO at BraveHearts, said the event is also a way of reaching out to vets.
“Trail to zero, as a mission together, brings a community of veterans together with a like cause, a like mindset to reach out and to save their brothers and sisters who are in situations that maybe they once were,” he said.
The NYPD has seen an increase in suicides among its members in recent years and officials said the ride helps members who participate.
Typically four to five NYPD officers commit suicide every year. But 10 officers killed themselves in 2019, prompting the department under then-Commissioner James O’Neill to institute changes, such as allowing officers in crisis to keep their badges even while handing in their firearms to de-stigmatize asking for help.
There were four NYPD suicides in 2020. As of September, three NYPD officers are believed to have committed suicide this year.
The NYPD has also been providing counseling to cops who go through tense situations in an attempt to stem suicides, Deputy Inspector Mark Wachter of the NYPD Health and Wellness Section said.
“What we have is a critical incident debriefing,” he said. “So in that case we bring officers in every single day who are exposed to traumatic crime scenes, collision investigations where there’s fatalities, even when they have to perform CPR on a shooting victim. We bring them in and we sit them down with a department psychologist and a member of our employee assistance team.”
