Tuesday, April 18, 2006

IMPORTANT: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS RATED "UNCLASSIFIED" BY THE US ARMY. Which means we can share with you a piece of lunacy, demonstrating how crazy our military is going while stationed overseas.

A group of Maine soldiers stationed in Iraq with Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment of the Maine Army National Guard ran the Boston Marathon as well - an officially sanctioned version of the race, complete with a BAA finisher's medal for each person who went the distance.

The four Mainers, Captain Darryl Lyon, Private Norman Gilmore, Sergeant James Chappelow, and Sergeant Keith York, all from Brewer, ran the 26.2-mile marathon distance in the desert, carrying 35 pounds of combat gear each, including M-16 rifles. (See below.) We could call that cruel and ununsual punishment, except that they appear to have done it voluntarily. We could call it torture, but who lets prisoners just run and run and run?

They finished in under six hours, even more of an achievement when you factor in the temperature, which hit triple-digits. The race course, instead of meandering through Boston's suburbs and into the city, took a scenic detour, while outside American lines (but still within the Italians' security perimeter) past the Ziggurat of Ur, a monument built in the 21st century BC - that's as long before the birth of Jesus as we are after it now.

(photos by Engels Tejeda, 207th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment).

4/18/2006 2:30:17 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [1] |