Going 31 miles in honor of 31 heroes

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. John Percey
  • Air Force Office of Special Investigations
OSI HQ QUANTICO, Va. --  It started with a post on Facebook - Terry Ford, a prior servicemember and fellow rucker, asked if anyone would be interested in doing a 31-mile ruck march to honor the 30 American heroes and their faithful K9 who paid the ultimate sacrifice when their helicopter went down in eastern Afghanistan Aug. 5, 2011.

He said if he could get five to six interested people, he would organize the event. By the time all was said and done there were 68 people in D.C. and "shadow" events organized in Albuquerque, NM and Tampa, Fla.

At 5:00 a.m., August 5, our group of ruckers (a mix of civilians, military and prior military) was at the Lincoln Memorial, all bleary eyed and groggy, prepared to embark on a journey that would take us all over our Nation's capital. Our mission was to make a small sacrifice of time and discomfort to go through the city, honor our fallen heroes and spread the word to anyone who asked, "What are you guys out here for?"

We stopped at irregular intervals along the route so that volunteers could read brief biographies and in honor of the Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and their one K9. Our ultimate goal was to get to Section 60, Arlington National Cemetery to pay our respects where most of the heroes are interred.

I feel privileged to have been a part of this group. Some knew what they were going to be putting their bodies through and some were blissfully ignorant. The bliss and ignorance didn't last long; however, but they embraced the discomfort and suffered in silence. Eight members from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations headquarters participated in the ruck march, and all of us completed it.

Gravity took its toll along the route we took that day, but when we arrived at ANC the emotional gravity of our mission seemed to lighten the physical gravity. Everyone seemed to walk a little taller as we approached section 60, showing respect to those we were there to honor. As we stood near the grave sites, the rain started to fall and we heard thunder roll in the distance. I heard several people say that moment made them feel as though they could have gone many more miles. It made for a surreal finale to an inspirational and exhausting day.

After the event, Terry posted this to Facebook: "For those of you who may not have known. We descended upon our objective six minutes before the actual time our heroes lost their lives one year ago. The SEAL that was there [with us] was representing the rest of the squadron in Virginia Beach who were all standing by to salute the moment the nation lost 31 of its finest warriors. While some may chalk that up to coincidence, I have a hard time believing that was an accident. Understand that while most will raise a drink in our boys' honor today, you were all standing in the rain at Arlington during the actual anniversary of our heroes' deaths."