The five-member Range-Oar Row team, pictured in March 2025, will try to navigate from California to Hawaii in June 2025. (Jessica Morrisy via Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Tribune News Service) — In December, when we last talked to former Army Ranger Jere Hartman, he told us about his ambitious plan to row a boat from California to Hawaii in June.
Now, almost four months later, Hartman, a Chattanooga-based fitness instructor, and his team of military veterans are deep into a training regimen they hope will prepare them for the rigors of the 2,800-mile Pacific Ocean journey, which could take up to 50 days.
It’s all part of the World’s Toughest Row, a series of worldwide races that test the mental strength and endurance of participants.
Hartman, 49, said the Range-Oar Row team has been reconstituted — going from four members to five — since we first talked late last year. One former member of the team had to drop out due to injury, he said, but the journey is still on.
It’s too late to turn back,” Hartman said in an interview last week, noting that the team is still hoping to get more donations.
One new sponsor for the boat is Chattanooga Bakery, makers of Moon Pies, which have been added to the list of foods the team will carry on board. Needing to consume about 6,000 calories a day to keep their energy up, the rowers won’t be shy about eating the snack cakes.
In recent weeks, the crew’s training has intensified. The team recently spent time in New Jersey working with a medical consultant to help get their minds and bodies in shape for the World’s Toughest Row.
Hartman said an incident during recent training reminded him of what the team is striving for. One day, while on the boat near Jacksonville, Florida, a pod of dolphins began to shadow the craft — almost as if they were delivering a message, he said.
“There was dolphins everywhere, and they are following for hours and hours,” Hartman said.
The next day, Hartman said he learned that one of the men he served with during the Iraq war had died.
“It made me feel like he was saying goodbye. The day he died, I saw something I’ve never seen in the ocean,” Hartman said. “He lived a rough life. He was my gunner. We were in Iraq together in 2007.”
The team’s cause — raising awareness of the mental health struggles of veterans — is always kept front and center, Hartman said. He said all five members of the rowing team have had service-related head injuries.
Hartman, who has seen more than a half-dozen military associates die by suicide over the years, says he has faced mental health consequences from combat himself. He said counseling and vigorous CrossFit exercise have helped him cope.
For the next two months, team members will be training on and off, mostly in South Florida. They are working on in-boat communication and synchronizing their rowing strokes. The goal is a consistent 19 strokes per minute, Hartman said.
The 2,000-pound boat, made in England, is being readied for rowing in the Pacific. But first it has to be towed cross-country and the trailer shipped ahead to Hawaii.
In the meantime, the crew is showing the boat off in public as much as possible. Last month, the rowers (only Hartman lives in Chattanooga) were in a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah, Georgia. “End Veterans Suicide” is painted on the side of the craft.
Hartman said he saw a man with a long beard and sunglasses standing near the roadside during the parade and he immediately sized him up as a veteran.
“He just gave us ‘the nod,’” Hartman said. “It made everything real.
To contribute to the effort, visit the team’s website at rangeoarsrow.org.
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