LINCOLN – It has been 10 years since Kurt Thompson experienced the aches and blisters that come with long marches, but he got reacquainted with the pain on Monday.

Carrying an ersatz M-4 rifle and a holstered air pistol but otherwise wearing genuine military clothing – his old U.S. Army Airborne Ranger uniform – the 39-year-old Lincoln man marched 15.8 miles from Main Street to Chester and back again along West Broadway, River and Bridge roads and Route 2.

“It was hot, hot, hot,” Thompson said after he finished his nearly 5.5-hour trek on Monday afternoon. “My feet are sore. I was remembering all of the blisters and bloody feet that come afterwards with these [boots]. I’m a little afraid to take them off just yet.”

But Thompson marched, he said, for a good cause – to raise money to buy care packages that he plans to send to service personnel overseas. Monday’s march raised about $500 from his 28 sponsors, he said, plus residents who are still making donations.

“The biggest cost is shipping,” Thompson said. “If we can send at least 12, that would be great.

“They need stuff over there [in Iraq],” he added. “They need baby wipes, toiletries, potato chips and popcorn, cheap DVDs – anything to give them a little comfort from home.”

Thompson didn’t do the march alone. His wife, April, and their three children – Brandon Thompson, 6; Justin Botting, 9; and Meka Thompson, 10 months, – rode behind them in a van covered with posters advertising the march.

“He did good, but it was tough. You could tell he was getting tired,” April Thompson said, “by the way he was walking. You could tell that his ankles and feet were bothering him.”

Most bystanders were supportive. Construction crews in Chester stopped traffic to let Thompson pass, April Thompson said, and some people made on-the-spot donations. Others honked horns, cheered or waved.

One woman, however, reacted fearfully to the harmless weapons Thompson carried, she said.

“I was going to tell her that they weren’t really real, but she got by me too fast,” she said.

For Thompson, the march was therapeutic. As a staff sergeant and sniper, he served in the first Gulf War during his tenure in the army (1985-1996), he said. He now works as a carpenter.

“It’s kind of part of a healing process for me,” Thompson said. “Being in the army for so long, I kinda felt like I needed to do something.

“It bothers me that I am not over there helping, but I can be helpful here.”

One of Thompson’s sponsors, Nicole Hanson, Shooters pool hall and restaurant co-owner, was caught in traffic behind Thompson during his march. Hanson donated $20 or $25 on behalf of her business, she said Monday.

“He came in for donations, and we thought that anything to help the guys over there fighting, we would do. We do a lot of donations,” Hanson said Monday. “I think it’s great. He doesn’t have to take his time to do it, but he does.”

Anyone interested in making donations to Thompson’s effort can send checks or money orders made out to Road March, c/o Machias Bank, 29 Main St., Lincoln 04457, Thompson said.