CBS: You might see them this summer running along a back road through a small town near you carrying an American flag. A small group of American twenty-somethings, touched personally by the death of one U.S. soldier in the Iraq War, are doing something dramatic to honor them all, CBS News Anchor Russ Mitchell reports.
It's called the Run For The Fallen -- a ten week trek across the country in memory of 4,129 casualties.
"We're going from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in the hopes of bringing people together," says run founder Jon Bellona, 26, from Clinton, New York.
The run ends in three weeks.
MTV: Participating in this run is part of the healing process for us," Boateng said. "This is something that can help all of us who have lost a loved one — a friend, a son, a daughter, a grandchild, a loved one, anyone."
The group started out on June 14, the Army's birthday — better known as Flag Day — right outside of Fort Irwin in California. The military training center is located in the Mojave Desert, one of the hottest spots in the country. The sun was beating down and the pavement was heating up as the runners stretched before the first mile.
"Most people don't know this," Brigadier General Dana J.H. Pittard told the group, "but we are at the same latitude as Baghdad out here."
The group ran the first mile together. Most of the runners, including Pittard, stuck around for the second mile. After that, the core group started switching off, relay-style, for the rest of the 26 miles they tackled that day. At the end of each mile the group planted a small American flag in the ground.
They're now in Tennessee.
