Photo By Staff Sgt. Candice Harrison | Soldiers from 11th Air Defense Artillery “Imperial” Brigade decorated a sign with...... read more read more
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar—As the sun began it’s decent over the Qatari horizon, it was fully ablaze in El Paso, Texas. This brought the saying “the sun never sets on the Imperial Bridge” to light. On both sides of the world the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and its family members gathered to run and walk for a cause.
The deployed headquarters element of 11th ADA Bde. and 2nd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th ADA Bde., came together in Qatar and another undisclosed location in the Arabian Gulf region while Soldiers and family members from 11th ADA Bde. at Fort Bliss, Texas, also assembled to start the run/walk together, March 1, 2015.
The crowd in Qatar was clad in pink and some wore messages to their loved ones. This particular 5-kilometer run had a very special purpose behind it. It was a run to raise breast cancer awareness.
“I know many of you have your own reasons to run today,” said Colonel Alan A. Wiernicki, commander of 11th ADA Bde. “Today I run for Christine Moon.”
Moon, who is the wife of Lt. Col. Joshua Moon, 11th ADA Bde.’s (rear) deputy commanding officer, was diagnosed with breast cancer approximately three months ago. The 11th ADA Bde. family came together over three countries with hundreds of people participating to show their support for the Moon family.
According to breastcancer.org, approximately 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. With numbers like these, it is no surprise that many of the 11thADA Bde. Soldiers have their own reasons to run.
Sgt. Jeffery Gilmer, a human resources noncommissioned officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 11th ADA Bde., used his mother as motivation to participate.
“It was hard watching her going through chemo when I was little,” said Gilmer. “I don't think I was old enough at the time to really grasp what was going on.”
Being a little older and wiser, Gilmer said events like this can have an impact on peoples’ lives in more ways than one.
“It is important to participate in runs/walks like this to bring awareness to others,” said Gilmer. “Others might think that they are the only ones affected by this disease. These events help show that no one is alone when it comes to cancer.”
For almost 15 years, Spc. Christopher Rose, a radio telephone operator for the tactical operations center of 11th ADA Bde., has understood what it is like to have someone close to him suffer from breast cancer. Rose’s grandmother successfully fought the disease, and has been cancer free for more than a year.
Rose said participating in a run, such as this one, while deployed helps him really understand why Soldiers do what they do.
“We come here from all over to fight overseas for various reasons, but we all fight for the same cause,” said Rose. “We are a team, and to do something like this run reminds us of what we really fight for back home. It reminds us what we do it for; ‘who’ we do it for. It keeps us humble, keeps us from forgetting.”
The coordination of the event took many hours of planning and execution. From finding the right place to hooking up the public address system, all sections from the brigade headquarters put in their time and effort.
Maj. Federico Martinez, officer in charge of brigade automations, 11th ADA Bde., and his team made it possible for the deployed command team to video call the Moon family right after the run.
In the end, hundreds of people in three different countries decided to run for the same cause; to raise breast cancer awareness. Whether it was for the Moon family or for another family challenged with the disease, the 11th ADA Bde. came out in full force to show their love and support.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2015 07:19 |
| Story ID: | 156002 |
| Location: | AL UDEID AIR BASE, QA |
| Hometown: | EL PASO, TX, US |
| Hometown: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 303 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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