On April 26, nine teams of four will begin a trek from the World Trade Center site to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., in remembrance of the nine men and women killed in the mass shooting at Kabul International Airport last April.
Each team will carry a brick with the name of one of the fallen, which will be placed in a memorial now underway at the base, said Col. Olaf Holm, the Air Advisor Academy commandant who is spearheading the event.
The teams are set to arrive April 27, the one-year anniversary of the deadliest attack by an Afghan serviceman on coalition troops in the decade-long war.
Killed that day were Maj. Jeffrey Ausborn, Capt. Charles Ransom, Tech. Sgt. Tara Brown, Maj. Philip Ambard, Maj. Raymond Estelle II, Capt. Nathan Nylander, Maj. David Brodeur and Lt. Col. Frank Bryant and contractor James McLaughlin.
The walk is just one event of many scheduled around the world, Holm said. Memorial runs are planned at Langley Air Force Base, Va., Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. and Rota Naval Station, Spain. A run will also be held in Kandahar, Afghanistan, he said.
A memorial tribute also will be held at 10 a.m. April 27 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Orlando, Fla.
The money raised will help fund the Air Advisor Memorial, which Holm said will be dedicated to all air advisors killed in the line of duty.
To learn more about the memorial and the events or to donate, visit www.airadvisormemorial.org.
