In his Marine Corps dress uniform, escorted by a color guard and cheered on by staff of Clear Sky Rehabilitation Hospital of Lecanto, Danny Garcia walked in his discharge parade to the music of the Marines’ Hymn, his wife Jackie by his side.

Since a May 31 heart attack, the 80-year-old Marine veteran had been in five hospitals and two rehabilitation hospitals from debilitating complications.

“When he came in here, he couldn’t walk; he couldn’t even stand up,” Jackie Garcia said. “And he’s known all over the world as the ‘Walking Man.’”

Danny Garcia has walked an estimated 52 million steps across six continents, bringing awareness to the causes of children and for world peace.

More importantly, as a Christian evangelist, Garcia walks with God, and it’s his mission to continue walking out his faith and sharing the gospel of Jesus to everyone he meets.

Book, Marines Don’t Cry

In “Marines Don’t Cry: Delivering the Message at All Costs,” written by Danny and Jackie Garcia, the Garcias tell Danny’s story of growing up in Spanish Harlem, New York, joining the Marines at 17, getting out, working a number of jobs, including law enforcement, then rejoining the Marines, only to be sent to Vietnam in 1972 as a forward observer, the “eyes” of his unit on the battlefield.

While there, he saw things that still haunt him. He returned from the war with severe PTSD.

Garcia, now 80, started walking in 1996 after his first wife left him and he thought his life was over.

“I ended up going to San Francisco with $48 in my pocket,” he said. “Credit cards were all gone. I had nothing. My intention was to walk along the California highways and commit suicide by getting hit by a car.”

He wanted to die at the infamous Dead Man’s Curve on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

“I remember shouting out to God, ‘If you really are for real, you’re really going to have to show me. You’re going to have to show me that you’re God. You’re going to have to prove it to me.’ That’s the mindset I had,” he said. “I didn’t know I had PTSD.

“But at the same time, I was reaching out for God. In my heart, I really needed God, because I had lost everything,” he said.

Years before, Garcia had become a follower of Jesus, but he had – almost – lost his faith.

He started walking, from San Francisco to Tijuana, Mexico, and as he walked, he sensed God walking with him.

Danny Garcia, in his Marines dress blue uniform, walks the hallway of Clear Sky Rehabilitation Hospital of Lecanto in his discharge parade on Aug. 11 after recovering from complication following a May 31 heart attack.

His suicide mission turned into a mission of advocacy and evangelism. As local media heard about him and told his story along the way, nearby Marine units would show up and escort him.

After reaching Tijuana, he decided to walk around the world and embarked on a 47-year ministry journey of faith, praying with and for everyone he met.

“As I’ve traveled, I’ve prayed with people all over the world,” he said. “I’ve been with heads of state and world leaders, presidents and kings and queens and ambassadors.

“I’m like Forrest Gump,” he said. “Everywhere I went, I met with famous people.”

Wings Over Houston, October 2025

This October, Garcia will be among the Legends and Heroes being honored at the Wings Over Houston Airshow.

Although he doesn’t have any immediate plans for another multi-marathon walk, neither does he plan to stop sharing his faith.

Even in the hospital, he wrote the name Jesus on a white board, asking everyone who entered his room, “Do you know him?”

At the end of his book, Garcia writes, “Telling the story of my life and early walks has forced me to recount and relive deep pain. Sometimes, it felt like large scabs were ripped off me, leaving bleeding wounds…What drove me to do what I have done?

“It must have been Jesus telling me, ‘Go. Don’t stop. Don’t quit. Follow me…Some Marines don’t cry on the outside. They really cry on the inside. I have cried many times when I was rejected or betrayed. When I felt alone, hopeless.

“I only trust Jesus”

“When I felt overwhelmed, cornered, battered, used – being famous is lonely, and I have felt alone many times,” he writes. “Who is your friend? Who can you trust? I only trust in my Lord Jesus.”