May 16, 2024

Wright State University honors fallen soldiers with ‘Carry The Load’ relay event

Daytona 24/7 Now

By: Jeffrey Schrock

DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) — Fallen military members were honored Thursday at Wright State University.

The university hosted representatives from ‘Carry The Load‘, an organization that does annual relay marches in memory of fallen soldiers.

The relay is 20-thousand miles split between five routes with Wright State being in the Midwest path. The non profit organization says they do this to raise awareness of the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Crews are making their way to Dallas, Texas for a Memorial Day walk in the organization’s founding city.

“A lot of us are military veterans, first responders, we all have lost friends, family in the line of duty. Memorial Day to us is a time to really remember them, remember who they were and continue their legacy by carrying their names on,” said Curtis Bell, firefighter, marine veteran and medic for ‘Carry The Load’.

The march started in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Participants taking part in the march, some devoting a whole month, Bell took approximately 10 days off from work and family. He is carrying 17 names personally on this trip.

Bell stated mental health is a very important subject because active duty, veterans, first responders are affected.

“I’ve been in two career paths that have the highest suicide rates per capita. We lose more firefighters every year to their own hand than we do line of duty deaths. That’s a statistic that people are not aware of, but it’s something that I feel a lot of them are preventable, if not all of them are preventable.”

‘Carry The Load’ marched to Wright State, Fairborn Fire Station 3 and the Dayton National Cemetery to pay their respects before heading to Cincinnati.

The Captain Sean L. English Champion Garden celebrates those who support or champion veterans, including other veterans, family members, faculty, staff and those who work with them.

The garden is named in honor of Shawn English, a 1999 Wright State Army ROTC graduate who was killed in action in Iraq in 2006.

View the full story here.

News

Wright State University honors fallen soldiers with ‘Carry The Load’ relay event

Daytona 24/7 Now

Address

Links

Social