Part 1 of a Mission Roll Call series exploring depression, purpose and hope through one veteran’s experience. Cover Photo: Don Legun (right) during a deployment aboard USS Ranger, circa 1980.

If you spend enough time talking with Don Legun, you’ll eventually notice a pattern.

The conversation might start with aviation. Or kiteboarding. Or inventing. Or building a house by hand. Before long, it circles back to something deeper: understanding why people struggle and why so many suffer in silence.

At 74, Don has spent decades asking those questions.

He has also lived a life that defies easy labels.

Long before he became an author and advocate for mental health awareness, Don was a collegiate gymnast and gymnastics coach. After college, he spent three years teaching vocational auto mechanics and coaching women’s gymnastics at the high school level in Marshall, Minn.  An opportunity occurred to coach a private gymnastics team for a year in Hilo, Hawaii.  Then an opportunity arose that would change the course of his life. Don attended Aviation Officer Candidate School, earned his wings as a Naval Flight Officer, and embarked on a Navy career that would take him around the world.

During his Navy career, Don flew in the A-6 Intruder community, accumulated more than 1,000 flight hours, completed hundreds of carrier landings, and deployed multiple times. For shore duty, he was transferred to the recruiting command and ran the officer recruiting office in Minneapolis.  Because of his success, he was tasked to teach marketing and sales at the training facility for Navy Recruiting in Orlando, Fla.  The next transfer was for sea duty and he was attached to ship’s company serving as Assistant Strike Operations officer, writing the flight schedule and coordinated operational training for the deployed air wing.

Like many veterans, Don eventually faced another transition: life after military service.

For some, that transition is straightforward. For others, it becomes a search for a new mission.

Don threw himself into entrepreneurship, opening a windsurfing and kiting business that grew into an award-winning instructional program. Teaching had always been part of who he was, whether helping students in a classroom or introducing newcomers to a sport he loved.

His curiosity and creativity followed him into other pursuits as well. Over the years, he designed and patented a computerized electromechanical switch, built a custom home on a North Carolina lake, wrote his book, and developed a reputation among friends and family as someone who was always creating, building, or solving a problem.

On paper, it looks like a remarkable list of accomplishments.

What most people couldn’t see was the struggle running alongside them.

Don traces his battle with depression back more than three decades. It wasn’t a single event, but a series of experiences that left a lasting impact and eventually changed how he understood himself and the world around him.

Unlike many people who quietly endure those struggles, Don became determined to understand what was happening.

He kept notes.

Lots of them.

Over time, those notes became journals, observations, self-studies, and eventually a book titled My Side of Depression. In it, Don documented not only his own experiences, but the patterns he noticed as his depression deepened and receded over the years.

His goal was simple: if he could better understand what he was experiencing, maybe someone else could benefit from it too.

That desire to help others remains one of the driving forces in his life today.

Whether someone agrees with all of his conclusions is almost beside the point. What stands out is the commitment behind the effort. For more than 30 years, Don has been trying to make sense of something that affects millions of Americans and far too many veterans.

He continues that work today.

This series is not intended to be a medical guide, nor is it an attempt to explain every aspect of depression. Instead, it is an opportunity to explore one veteran’s journey through service, struggle, purpose, resilience and hope.

Because before discussing symptoms, diagnoses or treatments, it is important to understand the person behind the story.

And Don Legun’s story is about far more than depression.

Next: “When Life Stops Making Sense: The Events That Changed Everything”