Most of us start each new year with great intentions and soon-abandoned resolutions. For six Texas A&M students, however, there couldn’t have been a more demanding or rewarding start to 2026.
Corps of Cadets members Tyler Papp ’25, Chancy Kanuth ’26, Tyler Kukla, Shane Bookbinder, Zachary Hampton (each ’27), and Austin Ramos ’28 set out on New Year’s Day, driving eight hours from Austin to Big Bend National Park.
Then they started hiking. A lot.
The team would cover 1,000 miles over just 10 days to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which is described as providing “cradle to career educational support for the children of fallen Special Operators, children of active-duty Special Operators whose spouse has passed, and all Medal of Honor recipients.”
Over the course of the journey, they would ruck through Big Bend and Fort Davis in far west Texas, then into New Mexico through Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, Alamogordo and White Sands.
Project Atlas Rucks began in 2017 in the Corps of Cadets H1 outfit. The project was later passed down to the P2 unit and remains there today. Hampton was in charge of organizing this year’s ruck since he took part in 2025.
For Kanuth and Papp, they were aware of previous Project Atlas Rucks, following social media posts and seeing older cadets complete the challenge. That was enough to convince them to be part of the next one.
Once the team members were in place, preparation followed.
“We compiled a gear list,” Kanuth said. “What we had, what we could contribute to the group, like tents and extra items like an ice chest.” Next, the route was planned, from where they would be hiking to which campsites made sense.
According to Ramos, there was no formal training or extra conditioning prior to departure.
“(Hampton) just picks the best candidates that he thinks are gonna be able to do it and go from there.”
Each day on the trail followed a rotation: Four men would hike while the other two stayed back to maintain gear, restock supplies and prepare the next meal. Those roles switched consistently, allowing everyone to log miles without overworking themselves.
As expected, not everything went smoothly.
“There was a lot of stuff that we kind of had to figure out on the fly,” Papp said.
Papp pointed to the opening stretch of the trip as one example.
“Our group leader just made the first two days really challenging,” he told KAMU. “We had to hike a big mountain to start.” Later in the trip, the group encountered 20-degree temperatures and snow while camping in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
The most serious setback came on day three.
In Fort Davis — only 12 miles into the trek — Kukla felt something weird under his pant leg.
“From my knee down, my leg was dark red,” he said.
Determined, he finished that day’s hike. Back at camp, he lost feeling in his leg and was taken to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with two rare conditions that cause blood vessels to narrow and muscle cells to dissolve — each a potentially life-threatening scenario without proper treatment.
“Overall, the hardest part for me was after that, because then I had to recover,” Kukla said. He spent only the next day and a half off resting before jumping back in with his team.
By the final days, exhaustion was constant, and the physical toll was visible.
“Your feet are just torn up — you’re just tired,” Ramos said. “Most people don’t think it’s that exhausting… but it definitely is.”
Along the way, the group became recognizable for one shared item: ponchos.
“Somewhere along the route, there’s going to be a shop that sells ponchos. And if you don’t have one, you need one,” Kanuth said. The ponchos started as practical gear but turned into conversation starters. “It brought people more interested in what we were doing,” Ramos said. “It honestly helped us reach some of our goals.”
One conversation in particular helped them finally reach their fundraising goal of $10,000.
“We met this really awesome couple in Cloudcroft,” Bookbinder said.
The couple stopped to ask what the group was doing, giving the cadets a chance to explain the purpose behind the ruck and who it supported. After hearing about the fundraiser and its goal, the couple chose to donate the remaining amount the team needed to officially reach its target – almost $1,000.
The Special Operations Warrior Foundation has special meaning for Texas A&M student Keegan Baldwin ’28, Ramos’s roommate, whose Aggie education is funded through the foundation.
“Special Operations Warrior Foundation helps a lot of kids like me get through school,” Baldwin said. “So they really set us up for success, and they help bridge that gap that we lose by losing a parent.”
By the time the team completed their ruck, they had surpassed their fundraising goal, raising more than $12,000. Across eight trips, Project Atlas Rucks has raised more than $110,000 for the foundation.
Beyond the fundraising total, the experience forced each of them to learn more about themselves. In retrospect, Papp said the trip taught him to rethink what contribution actually looks like on a team.
“It’s not necessarily about doing the most miles as an individual, but to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself as much as possible so you can be more of an asset to your own guys.” He said the lesson was not about outperforming anyone else, but about sustaining himself well enough to support the mission.
For Hampton, the ruck revealed where he could grow as a leader.
“I definitely saw where I could improve within my own leadership capabilities,” Hampton reflected. “It’s gonna be something that sticks with me for the rest of my life.”
The next Project Atlas Rucks is already taking shape. Non-graduating members of this year’s team have expressed interest in returning next winter, this time with the experience to mentor younger cadets stepping into the challenge for the first time.
What began in 2017 as an ambitious winter challenge within a Corps outfit has become something more: a yearly decision by a group of cadets to trade comfort for commitment.
Follow Project Atlas Rucks on Instagram to support future trips, and visit specialops.org to learn more about, or donate to, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
