Stryker Brigade News

They run and bike each day they are traveling to keep in shape. Saturday night they showed up at the race start decked out in running shorts and athletic outfits, most in the Italian national colors of red, white and blue.

Giorgio Bonzanini is the youngest member of the group at age 52.

"It's a pity you have short summer time," he said. Bonzanini said the men are enjoying the long daylight hours and cool temperatures compared to the hot and humid summer weather they experience in Italy.

"We came to enjoy the temperature," he said. "And we eat spaghetti at night."

Some of the Italians introduced themselves to another group of international visitors, 10 Marines with the 5th Anglico, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, stationed in Okinawa, Japan. The Marines are in town taking part in the Northern Edge joint forces exercise at Eielson Air Force Base. They said their major heard about the race and told the unit to take part. Their desert fatigues were a contrast to some of the Italians' running outfits. One of the men from Italy asked to try on the Marines' boots to see if they were more difficult to run in than running shoes.

Any other year, the Marines would not have been the only participants in fatigues. Soldiers from Fort Wainwright's 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment take part each year, firing a Howitzer to signal the start of the race and pushing the cannon to the finish.

But this year, most of the unit is deployed to Iraq with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Instead, Lt. Phillip Kerber said about 70 soldiers took part in a run Friday at their base outside Mosul in honor of the Midnight Sun Run.

Kerber and a handful of soldiers from the rear detachment at Fort Wainwright still wanted to support the race, and even though they didn't have enough manpower to push the Howitzer, they brought it to fire across the starting line at race time.