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Honoring a hero

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jared Trimarchi
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar --  Nearly 150 service members participated in a Pat Tillman remembrance run at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, April 26, 2014, to honor the legacy of a man who gave up everything to fight for the freedoms of American citizens.

April 22, 2014, marked the tenth anniversary of Tillman's death, and the men and women who are stationed at AUAB ran to remember his sacrifices as an Army Ranger.

The run was a small sacrifice to remember a hero said, Maj. Shelby Henry, event coordinator who is deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. and a Ridgecrest, Calif., native.

"This was the first time the event was hosted at Al Udeid Air Base, and to be honest I was a little worried we would only get 20 people due to the high ops tempo of our mission," Henry said. "I was excited when I started coordinating the event of how many people were pumped up to participate in the run. Everyone had a great attitude this morning and the event was a huge success."

Forty two is a number closely associated to Tillman, as it was his jersey number when he played football for Arizona State University as a linebacker, which is why the participants ran a total of 4.2 miles. After college Tillman was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, where he played for four seasons.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Tillman enlisted into the Army and gave up his career in the National Football League. He was accidently killed by friendly forces during a firefight in Afghanistan, and his dedication to serving others has made him a national hero.


The event, which started in Tempe, Ariz., was where Henry had the idea of bringing "Pat's Run" to AUAB.

"I remember running with more than 30,000 people in the streets of Tempe, and it was an amazing experience," Henry said. "As I ran into the stadium and the crowd was electric. The whole experience remembering Pat Tillman was something I could never forget."

The event was also used to raise money for the Pat Tillman Foundation, which provides scholarships to veterans and their families. The foundation has collected more than $4.6 million so far in remembrance of Tillman.