MBVD: Marine Corps Marathon

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Marine Corps Marathon - Special Runners

Some of the TAPS runners include:

Sixteen-year-old Katrina Wert, lost her father, US Marine Corps Master Sergeant Michael Wert, when he drowned while saving two boys at a North Carolina beach. Katrina helped her father in the water rescue, hauling the boogie board for the two boys who nearly drowned. Master Sergeant Wert was an intelligence chief for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point and had served in Operation Desert Storm and supported Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following his death, Katrina, an avid cross country runner, gave up her sport. But after hearing about the TAPS team in the Marine Corps Marathon, she decided to run to honor the memory of her father. Her younger brother, Michael, age 8, will honor their dad in the Healthy Kids Fun Run.

Jaime Boris will run the Marine Corps Marathon this year only weeks before the first anniversary of her husband's death in Afghanistan. US Army Captain David Boris, was killed with his gunner, Sgt. Adrian Hike, when an IED exploded on November 12, 2007.. Jaime wrote: "I am running to honor Dave and Adrian and to fulfill the plan that Dave and I had to run the Marine Corps Marathon together. Dave was not only my husband and my best friend; he was also my favorite running partner. I ran my first marathon, the 2004 Marine Corps Marathon, while he was deployed to Iraq. After he returned, we trained for and ran two marathons together (Berlin 2005 and Vienna 2006) and planned to run the MCM together after we moved back to the US from Germany. This October 26th I know he will be with me for all 26.2 miles as our friends and I run for TAPS in his honor."

When Renny Parker ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2006 for the very first time, it was only months after the death of his son, US Marine Corps Sergeant Eli Parker, who was killed while conducting combat operations in Iraq. Renny ran again in 2007, and now has recruited nine of Eli's friends and family members to run with him. His wife Donna is also running the 10K at the Marine Corps Marathon this year. Renny wrote, "I live in central New York and I'm running the marathon in memory of my son, Marine Sgt. Elisha Parker, who was killed in Iraq on May 4, 2006. I also run and remember those close to Eli who gave their lives in Iraq: Cpl. Tyler Fey, LCpl. Robert Moscillo, Cp. Stephen Bixler, and others."

Xiomara Hall's husband left for Iraq in February 2008, leaving her at home with their four children. Then in March she received the knock on the door that every military family dreads, and found out that the love of her life, US Marine Corps Lt. Col. William G. Hall, had been killed in combat operations. Xiomara will run her first marathon at the Marine Corps Marathon and has organized an entire team of friends and family members to run alongside her for TAPS as Team Semper Fi. Their daughter, Tatianna, age 7, will run the Healthy Kids Fun Run in memory of her dad.

Mark Hurst (bib #25,226) is running in memory of Captain Eric "Boot" Das, who was killed in action in 2003 while flying an F15-E over Iraq. Hurst was part of the ground team send to recover his remains from the failed mission. He and his family have become close with Das' widow, Captain Nicole Das. During a deployment in Afghanistan in May 2004, Hurst was wounded in action and would later lose an eye.

Amanda Dodson of Anchorage, Alaska, will run the Marine Corps Marathon with the helping words of her father and running partner, Gary Dodson, alongside. They're running in memory of Amanda's fiancé, US Army Corporal Jason Corbett, who died in Karmah, Iraq on January 15, 2007 while attempting to help a foot patrol from his platoon under enemy fire. Amanda writes, "Jason was an active athlete and outdoorsman. As much as Jason enjoyed running, participating in this marathon is a wonderful way to honor him." On her run, she will carry a photo he gave her before deploying.

The TAPS "Run and Remember" team began with one runner. In 1996, Marie Campbell lost her husband, US Air Force Sergeant Dee "Soup" Campbell, when a terrorist truck bomb exploded at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and took the lives of 19 air men. "TAPS helped me so much in those early years, and I ran the Marine Corps Marathon as part of my own healing," said Marie Campbell.

"Now I do this to give back to others who need grief and recovery support, so TAPS can continue to support the many surviving families who've lost someone serving in the military and are walking the road I once walked down," said Campbell. Today, Campbell is the director of the TAPS "Run and Remember" team, and organizes a 3-day event for the TAPS team. She'll be running her 8th marathon this year.

*I will be cross-posting these everywhere you usually find me..including NewsBlaze here;)*

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SOLDIER"S ANGELS NEEDS YOUR HELP!

The Veterans Hospital in Tucson needs our help!!! They have contacted Soldiers' Angels with a list of needs for their patients. Soldiers Angels needs your help in making some of these come true.

Below you will find just a small portion of needs that are immediate. You can also find this list posted on the Soldiers Angels Forum at www.soldiersangelsforum.com you will be able to find lots of great information there for our deployed and vets.

If you are sending a monetary donation please follow the link and indicate the State you are in.

Donate here;
Ttp://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=veterans-support

COMFORT ITEMS- $350/MO
Dry Skin Cream
Slipper Socks-No skid
Catheter bag covers
Shaving Cream
Hand Lotion
Baby Shampoo
Hand Soap
Roll on/Spray Deodorant
Denture Cleaner
Underwear (men and women (all sizes)
Toothbrushes
Denture Grip
Socks (white)
Talcum Powder
Nail Clippers
Toothpaste
Ladies hand and body lotion
Backpacks
Disposable Razors
Comb/Brushes
Shawls
Shaving Cream/small
Knitted Caps
Travel Alarm Clocks
Ball Caps
Tote Bags
Shower Shoes
Pocket Size Needle and Thread Kit
Heart pillows for cardiac patients
Lap Robes (3x5 or 5x7)

GUEST SERVICES
30 cup coffee makers
Coffee supplies (reg. & decaf)
Music CDs
Stamps
Writing Paper and Envelopes
Prepaid Phone Cards for patients’

RECREATION
Puzzle books
Crossword Puzzles
Pencils
Video tapes & DVDs (movies, educational)
DVD Player

Sports equipment (basketball, tennis rackets &
Tickets for entertainment & sporting events
Balls, badminton set, Frisbees, football)

If you can send just one item that would be great!!! If each person sends one thing we will make a difference! They are also needing those who can volunteer time at the hospital just contact the Voluntary Services Dept. For information.

Mail Items to:

Department of Veterans Affairs Southern Arizona VA Health Care System – Voluntary Services 9-135, 3601 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85723

PLEASE HELP US HELP THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!

My Favorite Speeches and Other Items of Interest

George Bush's March 28, 2007 Discusses Economy, War on Terror During Remarks to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association;http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-2.html
Mitch McConnell's March 15, 2007 Funding For Troops, Not Timelines for Retreat; http://mcconnell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270747&start=1
Ronald Reagan's June 12, 1987 Tear Down This Wall Speech; http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
Vice President Cheney's March 12, 2007 Remarks at the AIPAC 2007 Policy Conference; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070312.html

Winston Churchill Quotes

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never, never, never give up.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Ronald Reagan Quotes

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.
Facts are stupid things.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.
In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tryanny and unrest.
Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?".
Man is not free unless government is limited.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.