4 Days, 186 Miles, Numerous Heroes

In September, New Jersey’s “Run for the Fallen,” a four day, 186-mile memorial run, made its way up the New Jersey coastline to honor fallen service men and women. 
On the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 23, the evening before the run was set to begin, participants and supporters gathered at a flag lowering ceremony at Sunset Beach to remember the lives of New Jersey’s most recent war dead. The ceremony also honored the life and legacy of Marvin Hume, a veteran of World War II who passed away in the spring of this year. He is best remembered as the man who honored our nation’s veterans by raising and lowering their casket flags at nightly ceremonies at his Sunset Beach property. The Hume family still continues this tradition.
The next day, on Thursday, Sept. 24, the run began bright and early in the morning at the Cape May Lighthouse in Lower Township and headed north toward the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Holmdel, Monmouth County, where the run was set to finish on Sunday, Sept. 27. The core running team was made up of active-duty military personnel. They ran seven-mile sections and moved at an eight-minute mile pace, carrying the U.S. flag, the New Jersey state flag and the “Honor and Remember” flag.
The run honored every service member from New Jersey who laid down their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Operation New Dawn and all wars and conflicts. As the organization’s mission statement states, “We run across New Jersey to raise awareness for the lives of those who fought and died, to rejuvenate their memories and keep their spirits alive, to support organizations that aid the families of those killed, and to aid in the healing process for the native New Jersey residents whose lives have been affected by war and conflict.”
To honor these service members, the team stopped at each mile along the route at hero markers for those New Jersey residents killed in battle, with the intention to create a memorial trail through New Jersey. The core running team presented an American flag and a personal biographical card at each hero marker to the waiting family members, friends and comrades. Hence the run’s motto, “One mile. One flag. One hero.” Many of those family members and friends chose to join the core running team for their soldier’s mile.
Among the fallen heroes was Thomas J. Casey, 32, an Army Captain from Cape May Point. He was killed on Jan. 3, 2008, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was honored at Hero Marker Three on West Lake Drive in Cape May Point. He had been retired three years from the Army after his first tour in Iraq, when he re-enlisted and was again deployed to Iraq. He died in As Sadiyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit using small arms fire during combat operations.
Lower Cape May Regional High School graduate Michael Scusa, 22, an Army sergeant killed on Oct. 3, 2009 in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, was honored at Hero Marker 10 in front of Lower Cape May Regional High School. Scusa, a 2005 Lower graduate, lived in the Villas. He grew up in Nebraska, moved to Cape May County in 1999, and enlisted in the Army out of high school. He had been married about two years at the time of his death and had a one-year-old son, Connor.
The runners also made a stop at the Wildwoods Vietnam Memorial Wall located at Fox Park and conducted three ceremonies.
The final mile of the run was dedicated to all prisoners of war and those missing in action from all military conflicts.
For more information on the run, visit njrunforthefallen.org.