Posted May 28, 2018 06:47pm
(KAIR)--Local area soldiers, who died in the line of duty, are being remembered during a special run that began last month.
According to a news release from the Kansas Adjutant General's Office, America's Run for the Fallen is a nationwide relay foot run in tribute to every military service member who has died while serving or as a result of serving during the War on Terror since October 12, 2000.
Among the Kansas National Guard soldiers being recognized as part of the run are Sgt. 1st Class Clinton Wisdom, of Atchison, and Sgt. Don Allen Clary, of Troy.
Both members of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery were killed November 8, 2004, in Baghdad, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, while serving as members of a personal security detail for a convoy that included the head of the Iraq Survey Group and several Defense Intelligence Agency analysts.
When a vehicle driven by insurgents charged the convoy, Wisdom and Clary were killed when the suicide bomber detonated his vehicle-born improvised explosive device.
Because of their actions, none of the members of the ISG were seriously harmed.
Master Sgt. Bernard Deghand is also honored through the run.
The Mayetta resident, and member of the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 35th Division Artillery Embedded Training Team was killed in action in Afghanistan on September 15, 2006. Deghand died as a result of small arms fire while conducting combat operations as part of Operation Mountain Fury.
Sgt. Courtney Finch, a resident of Leavenworth, and a member of the 714th Security Force, died in Iraq on July 24, 2007.
America's Run for the Fallen covers more than 6,000 miles in 19 states and honors nearly 20,000 service members. The run began on April 7 in Fort Irwin, California, and ends August 5 in Arlington National Cemetery.
