Dear Friends,

                Every day our military service members put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms that we enjoy every day.  Many of whom pay the ultimate sacrifice.  These days you would be hard pressed to find a person that doesn’t have a direct connection between a service member or family member of a Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Coastguardsman or Airmen that has been wounded or killed in battle.

                We all do our best to honor these brave men and women and keep their memory alive.               For the members of 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Platoon “Gunfighter 3” this is especially true.  In 2005, our platoon returned from Iraq, but not without losing two of our brothers—Lance Corporal Jerimiah C. Kinchen and Corporal Steven P. Gill, with several others being severely wounded.  On October 30, 2005, members of 3rd Platoon, under the leadership of Capt. David Herron, and with the assistance from many family members, ran the 30th Marine Corps Marathon as a platoon, as a symbolic end to their deployment to finish as a team and honor the lives and memory of those we lost.  Two members of the platoon, Clint Barkley and Alex DelRio, who had just received prosthetic legs, participated.  We crossed the finish line together.

                Since 2005, there has been at least one member of the platoon who runs the Marathon in Washington D.C. as a memorial to the memory of Jerimiah and Steve.   In November, 2015 we are once again gathering the entire platoon and their families on the 10th anniversary of that first marathon that we ran as a platoon.

                With that goal in mind we are asking for donations to help make this possible.  An account has been set up and we are hoping to relieve some of the financial pressure for many of our members and their families to attend.   Monetary donations as well as in-kind mileage for airline tickets are welcomed.

                Thank you for your consideration of our request.
-Marines of Gunfighter 3