Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Johans Chavarro | 160910-N-IU636-1007 PEARL HARBOR (Sept. 10, 2016) Patrons walk through aisles of boots...... read more read more
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PEARL HARBOR - Approximately 2,500 runners gathered at Ford Island, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to participate in the 2016 Tripler Fisher House 8K Hero & Remembrance Run, Walk or Roll, Sept. 10.
The event honored fallen service members who lost their lives in combat, training or exercises since Sept.11, 2001. The run included boots, with attached photo identification, for each of the more than 7,000 fallen service members.
“Along the route today, you’re going to see boots, boots with pictures, with names,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Sean C. Killeen, commanding officer, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, during the event’s opening remarks. “Each one represents a fallen service member. It also represents a family that’s facing a loss, and a community that is missing one of its best members.”
The boots lined both sides of the road around the Ford Island historic runway, as well as the Adm. Clarey Bridge (Ford Island Bridge).
“It’s our honor to host this every year, [and] we hope to continue to host it,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Richard L. Smith, commander, 647th Air Base Group, 15th Wing, and deputy commander, JBPHH. “I just want to say ‘thank you’ for coming out today, this event doesn’t go off without you. So thank you everybody for attending today to help remember our fallen.”
Providing musical support through the early hours of the morning, the Marine Forces Pacific Band also performed “Taps,” followed by a gun salute by the U.S. Air Force rifle detail prior to the run.
Motorcycle riders, including active duty service members, veterans and family members, opened the run with a patriot guard style escort and later greeted, motivated and handed out bottles of water to each runner as they neared the finish line.
Event organizer and Fisher House Run Manager, Theresa Johnson, said the event served as much as an opportunity to remember and honor fallen service members, as it does an opportunity to lament.
“After the run is over we place the boots in a display, and that really becomes a healing place for both the service member, and the community, because they have something tangible that they can look at,” said Johnson “And having a place for those who have served with them, who maybe, at that time, didn’t really have time to grieve, or were just at a different place, allows them to come out here and spend some time, and share stories that have never been shared.”
In addition to bringing awareness to the fallen service members during the event, Johnson hoped to also inform and bring awareness to Fisher House, and the services it can provide to service members and their families.
“Really we just want to bring awareness to Fisher House, because life after Fisher House sometimes means either they are a wounded warrior, or a Gold Star Family,” said Johnson. “So we just want people to know what we do, and how we can serve our community.”
Completing the race alongside his platoon, 1st Lt. Ben Griffith, a Marine stationed at MCBH, commented on the importance the unit felt to participate in the run in order to remember the Marines and others who served before them.
“We brought the platoon out here to remember our fallen brothers and sisters,” said Griffith. “We thought it important to remember the sacrifice of those who came before us so it’s not lost on the new generation of Marines.”
Among the several military units that participated in the event, Chief Petty Officer selectees and Chiefs assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) ran in formation in remembrance of their fellow Sailors.
“It’s really important for us to ‘not forget,’” Chief (select) Intelligence Specialist Richard A. Taft. “It’s important to remember, not only where you came from, but why we’re doing the things that we’re doing.”
Upon completion of the run, the boots were collected and lined up in rows on the runway field for everyone in attendance, and visitors to the island, to pay their respects and commemorate the fallen.
The Tripler Fisher House is located behind the Tripler Army Medical Center. A Fisher House is “a home away from home” for veterans and military families of patients receiving treatment at military medical centers.
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.13.2016 22:10 |
| Story ID: | 209472 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 451 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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