Fall 2014 Recap Part 5: The Fisher House Hero & Remembrance Run, Walk, or Roll

The first weekend in September, we did the Fisher House Hero & Remembrance Run, Walk, or Roll on Ford Island. The event is all volunteer-run, and it's to remember the members of our Armed Forces who have been lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's an 8k route, and all along the route are boots - one boot for every person lost. There are so many boots. It was such a nice event, but also so emotional. It was so strange and sad to think that for every boot, a person had died. Each boot had a picture of the person with their name, branch of service, and the date they died. Walking with so many people in the military, it was especially sad to see the people I knew looking for friends they had lost. To me, the people on the boots were strangers, but to some people there, they were friends or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers. It broke my heart. One boot (pictured to the left) honored one of the heroes depicted in the movie Lone Survivor. (If you saw that movie and didn't cry, how?!)  At the last straightaway, I started to look more closely at the boots, and suddenly I couldn't stop crying. Some boots were tied together - people who had died together. One pair was tied together but had different dates; then I realized they were brothers. The poor parents. Most of the photos were from military IDs, but some were personal photos. One of a soldier with his newborn baby. One of a soldier with his dog. Neither of them would ever understand why their soldier never came home. Some of the boots had been decorated with leis or other offerings. Someone set a beer next to one boot, sharing a drink with a lost friend. One widow had left a letter for her husband. I cried so hard I couldn't read it. A little boy walked with a shirt honoring his father. From the Ford Island bridge, you can see Pearl Harbor. It was almost overwhelming how much loss was represented there that day. It was a heavy reminder that the people who are fighting our wars are not statistics or faceless strangers. They are real people, and they leave real loved ones behind when they go off to fight.