GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - In 2011, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Brian Bruns ran 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West to remember Coast Guardsmen who have fallen in the line of duty after 9/11. It is now a global event, one that was carried out on Naval Station Guantanamo Bay by Joint Task Force GTMO Port Security Unit 312 from San Francisco, Sunday, May 18 at Cooper Field. The 312th, who are recent arrivals to GTMO, committed to the Run to Remember in 2013 and wanted to keep the tradition alive while they were deployed.
PSU 312 Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Tiffany Danko says it’s not the first time they’ve done the Run to Remember.
“This was all the work and effort of my petty officers, with Petty Officer 1st Class Mike Canning being the driving force behind the organization of the event,” said Danko.
After organizing the run last year, Canning was asked if he wanted to organize the Run to Remember in GTMO too. He said to prepare for the event he had to coordinate with the MWR, who provided the supplies, canopies, and the scoreboard. Regardless of how many ran at one time, only one runner carried the Run to Remember baton, which had to travel 100 miles. Oftentimes whoever ran with the baton would have someone run with them for support.
“Most of the people here for the beginning of it are from the night shift, so most of them ran first, after we all ran the first mile together,” said Canning.
An event like this takes a whole day, with the PSU 312 setting things off at 7 a.m. and not ending until after 9 p.m. Success of the event depended not on the Coast Guard members who stayed throughout the day, but with the volunteers who trickled in throughout the afternoon; of those volunteers, one group was crucial to making the 100 miles achievable.
Marine Staff Sgt. Melbin Medina, with the Naval Station Guantanamo’s Marine Security Force Station, heard the initial announcement a few weeks prior over the radio, and called into the radio that the Marines would dedicate at least 25 miles for the Run to Remember.
“After that, I put the information out about the run for volunteers to sign up. They’re always looking for something to do,” said Medina.
Initially, he wasn’t sure how many would volunteer, but by the time it came to run, they landed at Cooper Field with 33 runners.
“They brought almost a whole platoon out and just ran a ton of miles for us. They ran 76 miles total, with 35 of them going towards the 100 mile goal. It was great,” said Danko.
Canning explained that they had a waiting list to run because the Marines ran all their miles at once. They ran in teams of two, with one runner carrying the unit guidon and the other carrying the official baton.
As a result, two separate mileage trackers were kept: one that told how far the baton had traveled, and one to account for total miles run which included the support runners or guidon runners. After their lengthy contribution was finished, those on the waiting list would start traveling with the baton. Including the support runners throughout the day, a total of 290 miles were run.
“What’s left of the unit back home did this run yesterday with about 40 people. They did 101 miles total,” said Canning.
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