Runners mark miles for fallen troops

USA TODAY, July, 2008 by Oren Dorell

For every mile that Jon Bellona and his friends run this summer, they carry forward the memory of a young man or woman who died in Iraq.

Members of their group, Run for the Fallen, are taking turns running 4,100 miles from Fort Irwin in California to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. At each mile, they plant a U.S. flag and a placard in chronological order for every soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who has died.

"It's one thing to drive a mile, another to bike it and one more to actually put one foot in front of the other ... to have that space and really reflect on another individual," Bellona says.

The idea came to him two years ago as he ran in Jersey City, N.J., and looked at the New York City skyline. Five years earlier, he and his...