Photo By Cpl. Corey Blodgett | Anna Boom (left) and Midori Uechi (center) run with and encourage Command Master Chief...... read more read more
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By Lance Cpl. Corey Blodgett
III Marine Expeditionary Force
OKINAWA CITY, Japan - To raise awareness for organizations that support wounded veterans, the III Marine Expeditionary Force command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Mark Busam, ran from Gate 1 of Kadena Air Base to the Okuma Recreational Facility in the early morning hours of May 17.
The whole idea of running the 51-mile ultra-marathon for wounded warriors stems from an idea he had during a trip to Washington D.C. at the beginning of the year, he said.
"I met with a lot of veterans that were a part of the Wounded Warriors Project and that kind of opened my eyes and made me want to do anything I could to support them," he said. "And a few months back for some reason, I thought, 'What if I did a run with the purpose of raising awareness for the folks who have been wounded?'"
Busam determined that a run would be the best thing he could do to help promote projects and organizations that support wounded veterans and to express his gratitude for the troops, he said. But Busman said he knew it would have to be "a pretty long run" to garner the results he was looking for.
"A run is extremely small in comparison to what some of our service members have been through," Busam said. "I wanted to do something that would be very challenging and very hard, because no matter what I did, it would be easy next to what these people do day in and day out."
With that purpose in mind, Busam decided on a date for his run. "I picked the Saturday we ran because it was Armed Forces Day; it tied everything together," he said.
With the plan ready to be put into action, Busam decided to ask a long-time running partner, Anna Boom, a Marine contractor, to run with him and help encourage him along the way. Boom accepted.
But more help showed up unexpectedly.
Busam and Boom planned to set out for the long run at midnight, but a few minutes before the start another runner, Midori Uechi, a nurse at Bush Medical Clinic on Camp Courtney, showed up to help out with the cause.
"She just showed up and said, 'Yeah, I'll give it a try,' and that's what really surprised me and all three of us set off running," Busam said.
Busam said he has run several marathons but none quite so long. With all the additional help he said the endurance run was made easier.
"After every marathon I've run, I always remember thinking; people have to be crazy to do two of these together, but I'd trained for a couple months beforehand and during the run it made it a lot easier just talking with each other and thinking about why we were doing this."
Ten hours and 38 minutes after leaving Kadena, the trio was walking the beaches of Okuma. But it wasn't easy, Busam said.
"That last part was just ... gosh," he said. "You could see Okuma but it just didn't seem like it's getting any closer, but to be honest quitting was never an option. After deciding this is how I was going to help, there was nothing else to do except finish it."
For more information on organizations that support wounded service members, visit these websites: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org, http://www.legion.org, http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/public/iimefpublic.nsf/UniteSites/wwbne, http://www.npc.navymil/CommandSupport/Safe-Harbor/, http://aw2portal.com.
| Date Taken: | 05.30.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2008 01:56 |
| Story ID: | 19933 |
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| Web Views: | 509 |
| Downloads: | 263 |
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