Fort Bragg Soldier hits 100th marathon!

Soldier Is Running Her 100th Marathon in Boston

DVIDS
By Eve Meinhardt
15 April 2019

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- It all started when she was stationed in Virginia 12 years ago. That's when Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Beofra Butler saw everyone training for the Marine Corps Marathon and decided to give the 26.2-mile race a try.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Beofra K. Butler, administrative executive officer to the commanding general, U.S. Army Forces Command, poses with her marathon medals on March 22, 2019. She has run 99 marathons since 2008. Around her neck are medals from her five previous Boston Marathons. She will run her 100th race April 15 in Boston. (U.S. Army photo by Eve Meinhardt)

As a soldier, running was already a part of her daily life and physical fitness routine. She had run several other shorter races, including the Army 10-Miler and a few half-marathons, so the challenge of a full marathon appealed to her. She wasn't even afraid of the dreaded "wall" that everyone told her she would hit around mile 20, when her body would start shutting down as energy stores ran low and fatigue set in.
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Veteran-Amputees Inspire Boston Marathon Watchers--And Country

Man with prosthetic leg carries woman across Boston Marathon finish line
WCVB
Apr 18, 2017

BOSTON
In the closing moments of the Boston Marathon, a moment captured at the finish line is capturing the hearts of many.

At the end of the course, a man with a prosthetic leg was seen carrying his guide and the American flag across the finish line.

Earl Granville said 50 feet before crossing the line on Boylston Street, he looked to his guide, Andi Piscopo, and decided to have some fun with the finish. He picked her up and carried her across the line much to the delight of those gathered at the finish line and on social media.

A video WCVB posted to their Facebook page has been seen by millions, leaving Granville in disbelief. "Never had I thought just a spur-of-the-moment thing would blow up like this," he said.

Piscopo was feeling just fine and didn't need help to cross the finish line. As Granville's guide, it was her job to keep an eye on him medically and keep his pace count. The team has run in multiple endurance races together.

"To see him accomplish his goals, it makes me want to do more," Piscopo said. "He inspires me to be a better person."

Granville is a nine-year veteran under the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and lost part of his leg in the summer of 2008 when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

"My downward spiral happened after that," Granville said. "A lot of hardships I faced, a lot of things I was doing, a lot of unhealthy choices I was making."
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Marine who lost leg in Afghanistan ran Boston Marathon carrying American flag
The Dallas Morning News (Tribune News Service)
By ELINE DE BRUIJN
Published: April 18, 2017

A Marine who lost his leg in Afghanistan crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday the same way he had run most of the course -- with a U.S. flag in hand.

Jose Luis Sanchez, of San Antonio, carries the United States flag across the finish line in the 121st Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17, 2017, in Boston. ELISE AMENDOLA/AP

"I was like I'm not gonna let this beat me, dude. I used that to fuel my drive," he said. "Never again am I going to feel sorry or feel these emotions. I'm not gonna feel weak anymore. At that point, I never looked back."

Sanchez's unit wrote him messages on the flag, which was flown at every location during their tour, he told WBZ-TV.

Sanchez was fighting post-traumatic stress disorder when he decided to open the flag and read it five years after the unit had given it to him, he said.
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The 85 Year-Old Marathon Runner Beating Competition Half His Age

The 85 Year-Old Marathon Runner Beating Competition Half His Age
Vice Sports
January 12, 2017

Published on Jan 12, 2017
Ed Whitlock is a once-in-a-generation athlete. He won't get the same coverage as a LeBron James, but he's been competitively running marathons at a high level for over 60 years. What exactly is the secret to shattering records for every age bracket out there? According to Ed, it's running laps through a cemetery.

Maine Police Officers Ran Marathon in Uniform

Portland Police Officers Run Half Marathon in Full Uniform
WMTV News
By David Charns
July 9, 2016

PORTLAND, Maine —Two Portland police officers ran Saturday's Old Port Half Marathon in full uniform.

Officers Brent Abbott and Thomas Kwok finished the 13.1-mile race in about 2 1/2 hours, the department wrote on its Twitter page.

Abbott also ran the race in full uniform last year.

The officers raised $1,200 for K9s On The Front Line, the Amy St. Laurent Foundation/Portland Police R.A.D. Program.

Earlier this year, Portland police had asked the department’s Facebook fans to choose between the two groups, but ultimately decided to split the donations.
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Amputee Marine Became Prince Harry's Heroine

'Prince Harry understands the struggles I’ve been through': US Marine dubbed 'Harry’s heroine' reveals how losing her leg has given her more determination than ever
Daily Mail UK
By JANE MULKERRINS
11 June 2016

When US Marine KIRSTIE ENNIS’s military career ended in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, it turned out to be the beginning of an extraordinary story

‘I hate the word “disabled. I think anybody can do whatever they want. You just have to figure out where your niche is. I would rather choke on greatness than nibble on mediocrity." Kirstie Ennis

Kirstie today at her home in California

I’m probably a touch crazy, but I don’t like to sit still,’ says Kirstie Ennis, with spectacular understatement. The 25-year-old recently returned from a week in the wilds of western Canada where she was volunteering on a camp for wounded military veterans, hunting and fishing in the great outdoors.

Before that she was at the Invictus Games in Florida. An operation meant she was unable to compete as planned (in the swimming, cycling and rowing events), but she went to support the other athletes – and the founder of the Games, Prince Harry, whom she got to know while doing a 1,000-mile charity walk across the UK last autumn.

She’s currently preparing to climb Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia – the highest point in Oceania – while also honing her snowboarding skills, hoping to qualify for the Winter Olympics in 2018. 

All of which means she can be a tricky woman to get hold of. When I finally catch up with her, she’s in Boston, working alongside Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon as a stuntwoman in Patriots Day, a film about the 2013 Boston bombings.

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Chicago Marine 7 Marathons for Chattanooga Slain Servicemembers

CHICAGO MARINE FINISHES 7 MARATHONS IN 7 DAYS ON 7 CONTINENTS - WITH RECORD TIME
ABC News Chicago
By Ravi Baichwal
Wednesday, February 03, 2016

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A U.S. Marine from Chicago is back home after a whirlwind global tour with an athletic twist that might take a moment or two to sink in.

Daniel Cartica added more than 180 miles to his trip in one of the hardest ways you could imagine: seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.

Starting Saturday, January 23, day one was at Union Pass, Antarctica. From the icy course there, he hop-scotched the world to six other continents, finally finishing his amazing feat in Australia last Friday - and Cartica won the World Marathon Challenge in record time.

His trip around the world started at its bottom, Antarctica, then it was on to the Americas, over to Europe, down to Africa, across to the Middle East, then Down Under. Leading the pack in Antarctica was Cartica, a Marine who teaches at Northwestern University.

"I am always a guy who is trying to get out of his comfort zone," Cartica said.

That meant paying $23,000 for the chance to join a club more exclusive than Mount Everest climbers or the astronaut corps. After finishing, it was back into the group's Russian transport, where what little rest was to be gotten before the next marathon - in Punta Arenas, Chile.

"I wanted to do something for those family members of the servicemen that were killed," he said.

They were the five men who died in Chattanooga, Tenn., last July when they were ambushed by an armed gunman motivated, according to the FBI, by "foreign terrorist organization propaganda."
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Iraq Veteran Massachusetts National Guardsman Receives Soldier's Medal

Iraq War vet receives honor for ‘selfless service’ during Marathon bombings
Boston Globe
By Astead W. Herndon
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
JULY 09, 2015

“You can never say you’re prepared for it, but in your head, you go through situations like that,” Welch said in an interview. “I knew what I needed to do to help.”

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
Governor Charlie Baker pinned the medal on Staff Sergeant Mark Welch on Wednesday at the State House.

After walking the length of the 2013 Boston Marathon with 40 pounds of military gear on his back, Staff Sergeant Mark Welch had earned the right to relax.

Painful blisters had left the Iraq War veteran in what he described as the worst pain he had felt in a long time. So, unable to move, he sat near the Marathon’s finish line.

That did not last.

Military officials said Welch exemplified “courage and selfless service” as bombs exploded in downtown Boston that day, providing support for emergency personnel and injured bombing victims.

On Wednesday, flanked by his visibly giddy wife and children at a State House ceremony, Welch received the Soldier’s Medal of the United States Army for his efforts.

The Soldier’s Medal is awarded for heroic actions in noncombat situations.

“[Welch] rushed to the area despite the risk that more explosives were imminent,” a military official said. “His actions, in the face of danger . . . have brought great credit upon himself . . . the Massachusetts Army National Guard, and the United States Army.”

Welch is a 13-year veteran of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. He said his military training helped him prepare for the intensity of that day.
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Life Changed For Alabama Doctor After Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon bombing survivor, Alabama physician shares how invisible scars still impact his life
AL.com
By John Talty
June 27, 2015

Dr. Scott Weisberg is a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing. He suffers from significant hearing loss, and deals with both post-traumatic stress disorder and memory problems. Weisberg, a family physician in Birmingham has become an advocate for those survivors with invisible injuries. (Joe Songer AL.com)

When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two Boston Marathon bombers, broke his silence this week for the first time since the 2013 bombing, it didn't provide much relief for Birmingham physician Scott Weisberg.

Dr. Weisberg, who had just crossed the finish line when the first bomb went off, didn't believe Tsarnaev was sincere in his apology in court on Wednesday. Tsarnaev, who has been sentenced to death, killed three and injured 264 others when he and his brother Tamerlan planted pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. He said he was sorry for the "irreparable damage" he had caused, but refused to face his victims in attendance.

Even if Tsarnaev were sincere, it wouldn't ameliorate all the suffering Weisberg has endured the last two years.

"The overall sentence is irrelevant because what he took away from me I'm never getting back, nor is any other survivor," Weisberg said. "This is the closing of this initial chapter in the recovery."

Weisberg looks like your average family physician. He's smart, sincere and his patients at Homewood Family Medicine like him. But beneath the surface Weisberg is suffering.

Every day he must grapple with that fateful April day.

He now wears hearing aids because of significant hearing loss from the blast.

He has to deal with both post-traumatic stress disorder and memory problems.

His marriage crumbled and is currently in the process of a divorce.

He's had to fight to keep his business afloat and adjust as a physician who can no longer use a stethoscope.
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Iraq Veteran, Army Ranger Boston Officer John Moynihan in Coma

UPDATE
Boston officer improving after surgery to remove bullet
The Associated Press, March 29, 2015

Decorated Boston cop, Iraq veteran in coma after being shot in face 
South Coast Daily News
March 28, 2015

The suspect in the shooting hopped out of the stopped car on Friday evening and opened fire on officers, striking Officer John Moynihan just below his right eye and an apparent bystander in her arm, police Commissioner William Evans said

BOSTON (AP) — A police officer who was honored for his role in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing was in an induced coma fighting for his life early Saturday after being shot in the face during a traffic stop, authorities said.

The suspect in the shooting hopped out of the stopped car on Friday evening and opened fire on officers, striking Officer John Moynihan just below his right eye and an apparent bystander in her arm, police Commissioner William Evans said.

Other officers returned fire and killed the suspect at the scene, Evans said. The woman suffered a flesh wound and was in good spirits, and three other officers were taken to a hospital with stress-related problems, he said.

The names of the suspect and wounded woman weren't immediately released.

Moynihan, 34, is on the police Youth Violence Task Force and is a highly decorated military veteran, Evans said.

He is a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and was honored at the White House in May with the National Association of Police Organizations TOP COPS award. 

Moynihan received the award for being one of the first responders in Watertown following the April 2013 gunbattle with the Boston Marathon bombers.

Moynihan had helped transit police Officer Richard Donohue, who was shot in the leg and nearly bled to death when police tried to apprehend Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Lieutenant Michael McCarthy said. read more here

Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Went From Crutches to Running NY Marathon

Defying the odds: US Army veteran with above-the-knee amputation to run NYC Marathon
FoxNews.com
By Melinda Carstensen
Published November 01, 2014

Today, Lychik has proved his doctors— and even himself in the early hours after his injury— wrong. Today, Lychik doesn’t just walk. He runs.

United States Army veteran Edward Lychik joined the military because he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself. But on his 21st birthday, while serving in Afghanistan as a combat engineer, he faced a horrific reality of war that prompted him to rethink his life mission entirely.

On Sept. 30, 2011, about a year into his deployment, Lychik was sitting in the gunner’s hatch of a tank when a rocket struck his vehicle. Lychik remembers feeling a dry thirst in his throat as black smoke engulfed the unit, seeing fire in the background, and reaching down to his left leg, which felt mushy on his fingertips.

“My friend immediately pulled it away and said, ‘You don’t want to do that,’” Lychik, now 24, told FoxNews.com. “They put me on a stretcher and in a vehicle, and that’s when I knew something was wrong.”

Lychik lost most of his left leg in the attack, which doctors later amputated above the knee. Gone were his knee joint, ankle joint and hip joint on that side of his body after undergoing a procedure called hip disarticulation. His medical team said the only way he would be able to walk again was with crutches and assistance.
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Quiet Boston Marathon Hero Receives Soldier's Medal

Boston Marathon hero awarded Soldier's Medal
US Army Corps of Engineers
By Bernard Tate
Headquarters
Posted 4/28/2014

BOSTON-- Many Americans have seen the shaky photos and videos taken when the bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Among the many people who went to the aid of the injured, there are glimpses of runners who stripped off their shirts to tie tourniquets around the shattered limbs of bomb victims.

One of those unknown runners was Col. Everett Spain, an Army engineer who is earning a doctorate in management at the Harvard Business School. On April 18, in a ceremony on the school's Baker Lawn, Spain received the Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest award for valor in a non-combat situation.

But Spain has shunned any publicity, avoided interviews with the civilian news media.

"First and foremost, I was brought up to believe that military officers should never seek praise for themselves," Spain said. "Our purpose is to serve others through character and leadership."


Despite Spain's modesty, his actions are a matter of public record in images taken during the Boston Marathon attack. He was only about 100 yards from the finish line when the bombs exploded.
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Nashville Double Amputee Rolling in Boston Marathon

Wounded Nashville vet in today's Boston Marathon
The Tennessean
Heidi Hall
April 21, 2014

(Photo: Photos by John Partipilo / The Tennessean )

What Marine-turned-marathoner Benjamin Maenza calls his arrogance, other people might call his valor. Or tenacity.

Or insanity.

Because Maenza finished his first marathon in 2011, only a year after an IED in Afghanistan efficiently shredded both his legs to above the knee. He used a handcycle to churn out those 26.2 miles without a day's training, and he was hooked.

At 9:22 a.m. today in Boston, the Lipscomb University student will start his seventh marathon. But this one will be like none he's finished before.

He will meet people who lost their limbs — not defending their nation overseas as he did, but because they simply wanted the exhilaration of running in the world's most famous marathon. Three people died and more than 250 were injured when a bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Some survivors are expected back, some of them in handcycles such as Maenza's.
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Fort Drum Soldiers in Afghanistan Running Marathon in Remembrance

Fort Drum soldiers to run shadow Boston Marathon in Afghanistan
Watertown Daily Times
By GORDON BLOCK
TIMES STAFF WRITER
PUBLISHED: FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014

ARMY PHOTO
From left, Capts. Mike Giaquinto, Matt Peterson and Stephanie Stuck of the 101st Airborne Division pose with Boston Marathon shirts in Afghanistan before today’s running of a shadow race comparable to the Boston Marathon.

Days before runners take to the streets for the Boston Marathon on Monday, deployed Fort Drum soldiers and other military personnel will take part in their own version of the iconic race today in Afghanistan.

Rather than the windy roads by sites like the Ashland clock tower and Boston College, or the crushing climb of Heartbreak Hill, 600 entrants from a range of units and countries will run 26.2 miles on the roads of Bagram Airfield.

This year’s race was organized by Capt. Lukasz Willenberg, a chaplain in the 10th Mountain Division’s headquarters who ran in Boston last year.

The Barrington, R.I., native completed the race, for a fourth consecutive year, about two hours before a set of bombs went off near the race’s finish line at Copley Square.

After a beautiful day of running and beating a personal best time, “all the magic of that day was ruined.” Capt. Willenberg said he and other entrants planned to run in honor of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan, along with victims of last year’s bombings in Boston.
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Boston Iraq Veteran-Fallen Firefighter Was Ready To Run Marathon

Fallen firefighter was set to run Boston Marathon
Michael Kennedy's dad taking loss 'one second at a time'
WCVB News
By Jack Harper
Apr 14, 2014

BOSTON —The father of a Boston firefighter killed in a fire in March is remembering his son, who ran to help the victims of last year's Boston Marathon and was training to run this year's race.

A funeral was held for Firefighter Mike Kennedy, who was one of two firefighters killed while battling a fire in Boston.

Wearing a fundraising shirt carrying his son's nickname, Dork, Paul Kennedy said he remembers wonderful times with his only son, including Mike's first Boston Marathon.

"I was close to the finish, and I saw him chugging along and waved. He saw me and stopped. I was in front of the Lenox Hotel. He turned and gave me a hug," he said.
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Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Running Boston-Strong

Army veteran who lost entire left leg in Afghanistan combat plans to run in Boston Marathon
By LARRY LARUE
The News Tribune
April 14, 2014

TACOMA, Washington — The first six times Edward Lychik told his physical therapist he wanted to run again, she was noncommittal, and with good reason.

The combat veteran's left leg had been amputated at the hip socket, and doctors had told him if he walked again, it would be on crutches.

Lychik ignored that diagnosis and kept talking to his physical therapist, Alicia White.

"The seventh time he said he wanted to run, I went in to see our prosthetist and said, 'We've got a problem," White said. "No one with this kind of amputation had ever run before, not like Edward wanted to run.

"We were still coming up with a walking leg, and he wanted to run mountain trails. He was talking about a marathon!"

An Army combat engineer at the age of 20, Lychik turned 21 in Afghanistan on a day that changed his life.

"I was riding in the back of our group and I was shot by a recoilless rifle," Lychik said. "The medic in the same vehicle, 'Doc' Padgett, saved my life, got tourniquets on both my legs so I didn't bleed to death. He did it with one hand wounded by shrapnel.

"I'd been through two explosions there already, had my one-man vehicle blown up. So I thought I knew what had happened. At one point I touched my left leg and thought I felt bone, and someone pulled my hand away and said 'Don't do that.'
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Iraq veteran told he'd never run again, will run Boston Marathon

Moving forward
Disabled Iraq War veteran from North to run Boston Marathon for charity
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
January 2, 2014

Disabled Iraq War veteran Nick Sousa, 27, says he's running the Boston Marathon to help people as they strive to recover from spinal cord injuries.
(Staff photo by Tom Maguire)

NORTH ATTLEBORO — A disabled Marine veteran says he’ll run in the Boston Marathon to help people attempting to recover from spinal cord injuries.

Nicholas Sousa, 27, an Iraq War veteran, has been accepted as one of three people who will run in April’s race to raise funds for The Journey Forward, a Canton charity that uses a specialized exercise program to help people recover from debilitating injury.

Sousa is attempting to raise at least $7,500 to support his effort on behalf of the charity.

The North Attleboro resident, who served with the Marines from 2005 to 2010, injured his ankle in a training accident, but kept quiet about it, fearing he would not be allowed to deploy with his fellow service members.

“There was a lot of damage,” Sousa said. “They told me I would never be able to run again.”
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