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thedrifter
10-20-08, 08:59 AM
Marines running to remember
By Arielle Clay aclay@nbcaugusta.com

(Story Updated: Oct 19, 2008 at 7:22 PM EDT )

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Nearly 2000 U.S. Marines and Corpsmen have died in Afghanistan and Iraq while fighting for our country. For the next 20 days Marines at Fort Gordon will pay tribute to them.

“They need to be remembered. They died for their country,” Sergeant Jacob Black said.

Black is running as a tribute to service men and women who didn't make it home.

“They went through a lot more then I just went through. It doesn't really come close. It's the best we can do right now to honor them,” Black said.

The tribute will be run on a dirt track for 20 days, 24 hours a day, rain or shine. By the time the tribute is complete about 1050 laps will be run for the over 1050 men and women lost.

“Every year we run one lap around Barton field, it's about a 3 mile lap for every one of those casualties,” one of the tribute coordinators ,Sergeant Jared Bean, said.

William McFather says running the three miles was tough but quitting never crossed his mind.

“You can't stop. There's 1090 marine, corpsman up there right now, their chests pushed out, standing tall, brave, honored that we're remembering,” he said.

The run is a sort of relay where at the end of one lap and the beginning of another a bag of 21 rounds is handed off.

“At the very end of the tribute they will hand those rounds off to a firing detail who will render a 21 gun salute for all who have given their lives in the name of freedom,” Bean said.

“These men laid down their lives for us. They paved the road for us to lead the way,” McFather said.

A road these marines are now running to help remember.

Participants will run the final lap of the tribute together. It ends November 7th with a 21 gun salute.

Video
http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/31255394.html

Ellie