HOLMDEL — In an apolitical reflection of remembrance a team of runners comprised of active duty and reserve Airmen and Soldiers from McGuire Air Force Base and Ft Dix, NJ, California and Afghanistan will embark on a 140 mile run to honor every New Jersey service member killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Runners will leave from the Cape May Lighthouse Sat. Sept. 25 at 6 a.m. stopping every mile to place a flag and biography of every service member from New Jersey that was killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will be running down Sunset Blvd, north on Broadway through West Cape May and north onto Route 9.
It will be early in the morning when these runners are coming through our towns between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. All residents are asked to come out Saturday morning somewhere along Route 9 and show your support to the young men and women and to the families of those killed defending our country.
They will be honoring/remembering local heroes Capt. Thomas Casey at mile 3 and Spec. Michael Scusa at mile 7. Family members of some of the fallen will be at their sons/daughters/sisters/brothers/fathers marker when the runners come by.
Everyone is invited to participate in the weekend activities.
• Fri., Sept.24 at 6 p.m., join the runners and support crews at the famous “Evening Flag Ceremony” at Sunset Beach,
• Sat. Sept. 25 at 5:45 a.m., early birds are welcome to join the start line ceremony at the Cape May Lighthouse in Lower Township.
• Saturday/Sunday Sept. 25-26, the Team will run carrying flags for 140 miles through New Jersey escorted by The Warriors Watch Riders and the NJ State Police. They will be stopping at 139 designated mile points to mark them with a flag and a personalized biographical card in honor of each fallen service member to create a 140 mile memorial trail. The exact location of each mile point will be available for download on the website: www.njrunforthefallen.org beginning on Sun. Sept. 18.
• Sun. Sept. 26, there will be two opportunities to join the run and participate in honoring the fallen. The first will be for the final 10k on Holmdel roads and will be open to runners who are capable of maintaining the nine-minute mile pace of the team. The second will be a 3k which will be open to anyone regardless of their ability. Runners joining the 10K will park at the PNC Arts Center and then be bussed to their start point but all those joining the final 3K through the grounds of the PNC Arts Center may park at the William R. Satz School on Crawfords Corner Road in Holmdel which will be their start point.
The 3k run/walk will start at 1:30pm and will allow all those participating to be at the finish ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in time to greet the main run as they arrive after 140 miles.
• Sun. Sept. 26 – 3 p.m. – Memorial Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial will include a reading of the names of all the fallen.
More information, registration details and the route is available on the NJ Run for the Fallen website at
www.njrunforthefallen.org or email njrunforthefallen@yahoo.com or run@mailspot.org .
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
