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Hundreds gather for 5K run honoring fallen servicemembers

By KIRO 7 News Staff
By KIRO 7 News Staff

DUPONT, Wash. — Hundreds gathered at PowderWorks Park in DuPont on Memorial Day to honor the country’s fallen soldiers.

The 5K run was hosted by the national nonprofit wear blue: run to remember.

Joseph Milledge, 15, was at the run to honor his fallen father, an Iraq war veteran.

“Don’t forget. Always remember. Every day for even just a couple of seconds,” said Milledge.

Milledge was joined by Captain James Soldner, a Gold Star Youth Mentor and captain with the 42nd Military Police Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

“Joseph’s dad, Joseph Milledge Senior, he’s who we’re running for. Every Saturday we train for the fight. (Monday’s) 5K is the culminating event,” said Soldner.

South Sound mother Lisa Hallett is co-founder of wear blue: run to remember. She was at the run to honor her fallen husband.

“John was killed on August 25, 2009, with three other brave soldiers. And back home I had a 3-year-old, a 1-year-old, and this brand-new baby who my husband had never met. And it was just a devastating time,” said Hallett.

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Hallett created wear blue: run to remember as a healthy way to grieve with others, including Rachel Elizalde-Powell, whose brother, Adrian, was killed in 2007.

“Every time the anniversary, a birthday, the anniversary of his death date, holidays — we just felt like we were by ourselves,” said Elizalde-Powell, co-president of the organization’s JBLM chapter.

The group runs together every weekend as a way to support its members.

For the Memorial Day run, each runner represents a fallen service member from the start of the Vietnam War to current times.

“Ernest Hemingway said it best. A man has two deaths. The first one is when they’re buried and the second one is when we cease to call out their name,” said Elizalde-Powell.

“We want these heroes to be more than numbers. We want them to live in the light of their lives. And the only way for us to do that is to speak their names and learn their stories,” said Hallett.

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