A walk to raise awareness about veteran suicide is on tap Saturday in Lehighton.

The National Memorial Mile Walk will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. on the D&L Trail, Lehigh Drive.

“We are having a Memorial Mile Walk to honor all our servicemen and women who served our great country, came home alive, only to lose their War at Home, by suicide, like our son Spc. Michael C. Wargo,” said Mike Wargo, a Gold Star Father who is heading up the National Memorial Mile Walk. “Too many veterans are dying every day.”

Registration is from 9-9:30 a.m., followed by a ceremony from 9:30-10 a.m.

Mike Wargo said that from Sept. 11, 2001, through present, there have been over 155,000 veterans who have died at their own hands, which represents a 20-to-1 ratio.

“For every soldier that’s killed in action, 20 come home and take their own lives,” he said. “That has to stop.”

Wargo’s son was a 1994 graduate of Lehighton Area High School. After 9/11, he joined the U.S. Army, where he spent 10 months in Afghanistan as a chemical weapons specialist.

He suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder for eight years before taking his life on May 20, 2013.

“We’re trying to get the word out,” Wargo said. “The purpose is to raise awareness to really be aware of what’s going on.”