Honoring Cpl. Kelly.

Saluting Cpl. Kelly's mile marker.

Flags flown by Town Bank Vol. Fire Company.

Rolling wall of Mid Atlantic region fallen warriors.

Coming over bridge on Seashore Road

Honoring Capt. Faunce.

Cynthia Woodard at Scusa's mile marker.

Team approaches Scusa's marker.

Change of runners.

Saluting Scusa.

Scusa's family members.

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COLD SPRING- At 6:30 a.m. Sat., Sept. 24, a team of three runners along with a number of vehicles assembled at Sunset Beach setting off on a two-day/150 mile run to Holmdel scheduled to conclude at 5 p.m. Sun., Sept. 25 at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial on National Gold Star Family Day.

Runners were changed every 5 miles. The team was comprised of active duty and reserve military from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and a team of wounded veterans.

Every mile of the journey was marked with a sign, dedicated to a New Jersey resident killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Run Team stopped at every Hero Marker to present a flag and personalized biographical card to waiting family members and friends, saluting and thanking the fallen warrior for their service to America.

The Run Team was joined in Lower Township by members of Team Hope for the Warriors, a team of wounded service members who were on foot and in wheelchairs as an integral part of the Run Team.

The Herald met the Run Team at three stops,driving ahead of the team by car,

At 6:50 a.m., minutes from sunrise, the team stopped in front of the Nature Conservancy, Lower Cape May Meadows tract on Sunset Boulevard to honor Cpl. Sean P. Kelly of Pittman.
He died Jan. 26, 2005 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kelly was a U.S. Marine with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base, HI. He was 23 years old.

A ladder truck from Town Bank Volunteer Fire Company was on site flying flags.

At 7:20 a.m., the Run Team crossed the bridge on Seashore Road over the canal and stopped just before the Ferry Road intersection. Judy Faunce was there to honor her fallen hero, her son Brian.

Capt. Brian R. Faunce, of Ocean County, died Sept. 18, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. His unit was Army Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
He was 28 years old.

A sizable crowd was gathered at Hero Marker Nine to honor Army Specialist Michael Scusa of Villas. Boy Scouts held flags. Mayor Michael Beck and councilmen Glenn Douglass, Erik Simonsen and Thomas Conrad were present at the runner’s brief ceremony.
Scusa’s family members were present. His mother, Cynthia Woodard, held a single rose.

Scusa was a 2005 graduate of Lower Cape May Regional High School. He was killed in action Oct. 3, 2005.
Eight of the sixteen soldiers in Scusa's unit were killed in an ambush but the actions of Scusa and his fellow soldiers saved the eight that survived the attack. The ambush occurred when Taliban insurgents attacked two outposts in Nuristan province near the border of Pakistan.

At that time, a CNN story reported militants opened fire with rockets, mortars and heavy-caliber machine guns.

The Run for the Fallen begin Fri., Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. with a 2-mile run/walk from the Cape May Lighthouse to Sunset Beach for a scheduled sunset flag ceremony with Marvin Hume. There was no sunset to view that evening and participants were soaked to the skin by a rain storm of tropical proportions.