Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2006 – A veteran Utah Army National Guardsman from Salt Lake City is coordinating efforts to hold the municipality’s first Freedom Walk. Salt Lake City’s Freedom Walk is slated for the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Chief Warrant Officer Paul Holton, an Army interrogator, said. “It’s important for people to remember how we felt that day,” Holton said. It’s also important to honor military veterans, especially those who’ve given their lives safeguarding freedom, he added. Holton is working to get sponsors and publicity for his city’s Freedom Walk....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2006 -- In conjunction with similar events across the country, up to 1,000 people are expected to walk the streets of downtown San Antonio Sept. 11 to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and to thank America’s veterans, past and present. Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit group that provides emergency support and assistance to servicemembers and their families, is sponsoring the San Antonio Freedom Walk, which will start at the Alamodome and end at North Plaza, in downtown San Antonio. The overall route will be a little more than two...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2006 – Momentum continues to build as 48 U.S. cities -- a number that continues to grow -- prepare to sponsor America Supports You Freedom Walks to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The first Freedom Walk, inaugurated Sept. 11, 2005, in Washington, D.C., attracted more than 15,000 participants, including family members who lost loved ones in the attacks. The walk proved to be so meaningful to those involved that Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, hopes to make it a nationwide observance. “We knew that it...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2006 – The first city to join the Defense Department’s “America Supports You” program is preparing to host a Freedom Walk on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. “The walk itself is not what we’re focusing on, as much as just getting people out to participate,” Enid, Okla., Mayor Ernie Currier said during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Enid became an America Supports You partner in March 2005. Enid will host its Freedom Walk on Sept. 11 at a downtown ballpark, Currier said. Participants will walk...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2006 – Residents of Munster, Ind., will gather on Sept. 11 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. “That day is one of the few days … where the flag is at (half-staff) until sunset, so we do a sunset ceremony,” Frank Darrington, post commander for the Munster Veterans of Foreign Wars, said of the Freedom Walk event planned for 7 p.m. that day. America Supports You Freedom Walks will be held around the country to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2006 – The city whose native son helped turn the United States into a nation of motorists will shun Henry Ford’s invention for a time on Sept. 11. Michael A. Guido, mayor of Dearborn, Mich., shows Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public affairs, a flag that flew over Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. New York firefighters presented the flag to the city in 2002 in appreciation for the $125,000 the city raised for the families of fallen firefighters. Courtesy photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “We...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2006 – Oklahoma City volunteers are preparing for the municipality’s first Freedom Walk, slated to run on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, a local organizer said today. Organizers expect as many as 10,000 people to participate in the walk, logistics coordinator Michael Carnuccio said from his office in a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Oklahoma City’s Freedom Walk will wend more than a mile through downtown, he said. Initial coordination with Oklahoma City officials, potential sponsors, and volunteers began in mid-July, Carnuccio said. Everyone contacted “was...

SEBRING, Ohio, August 3, 2006 -- If Colton Lockner’s summer project is any indication of his future success, his name is one everyone should remember. Colton, 9, has taken it upon himself to organize this small village’s first America Supports You Freedom Walk, a move that surprised no one who knows the slight boy. “You don’t expect this from a 9-year-old kid,” former local elementary school principal Vito Weeda said. “We look for great things for Colton because of the type of person he is.” Colton’s mother agrees that her son, who has no problem talking business with adults...

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2006 -- Organizers expect 5,000 people top participate in the Aurora, Colo., Freedom Walk event Sept. 9. Freedom Walks around the country will commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and honor American servicemembers. Freedom Walks are part of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which highlights corporate and grassroots support for U.S. military members and their families. “Operation Hope,” part of the Beacon of Hope Outreach Center, will host the Aurora Freedom Walk. The nationwide military support program, launched in 2003, provides services to more than 10,000 troops and their families. Event organizer and Beacon...

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2006 – The Defense Department announced today it will hold the second annual America Supports You Freedom Walk on Sept. 10, the night before the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. This year’s America Supports You Freedom Walk in the nation’s capital will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will follow a two-mile route from the National Mall to the Pentagon. Participants will pass several national memorials, then will proceed over Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery before arriving at the Pentagon. Immediately following the walk, musical star Denyce Graves will...

You don't have to be an astronaut anymore to experience walking in space. All you need is $35 million and the willingness to risk your life. A private Virginia firm that already has sent three super-rich men to the international space station for $20 million each announced Friday it would offer an even rarer adventure: A stroll outside the space station for an extra $15 million. "It is the holy grail of spaceflight; it's something very few of the astronauts and cosmonauts have done," said Eric Anderson, chief executive of Space Adventures Ltd. A private Virginia firm that already has...

If you can walk a quarter-mile, odds are you have at least six years of life left in you, scientists announced today. And the faster you can do it, the longer you might live. While walking is no guarantee of health or longevity, a new study found that the ability of elderly people to do the quarter-mile was an "important determinant" in whether they'd be alive six years later and how much illness and disability they would endure. "The ability to complete this walk was a powerful predictor of health outcomes," said study leader Anne Newman of the University of...

At least 14,000 mostly Hispanic students stormed out of school classes across Los Angeles in a snowballing protest against Washington's plans for a draconian crackdown on illegal immigration. Local news reports said that "tens of thousands of students" were taking part in the protest that was spreading through schools across the country's second largest city ahead of a US Senate debate on a divisive immigration reform bill. "At least 14,000 students are protesting in the streets in Los Angeles city alone," Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District told AFP. The latest protest came after one...

11/10/2005 - EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- Their strides might not have been as long as the adults in the crowd, but each step they took meant just as much. Decked out in patriotic red, white and blue, children from Oak Hill Elementary School beamed with pride as they marched in their annual All Veteran’s Memorial Walk here last week. The second graders, led by Cindy Nichols, have been doing the walk for more than 20 years. Ms. Nichols, who has been at the school for more than 30 years, started the tradition. It has grown each year...

An elderly couple who were stranded near cliffs in west Wales refused to be rescued during a six-hour stand-off in worsening weather. The mystery couple had been cut off by the tide after a beach walk at St Anne's Head in Pembrokeshire. Despite a lifeboat and RAF helicopter crew arriving, the pair refused their rescue offers and even hurled abuse. The coastguard said the whole "rescue operation" is thought to have cost thousands of pounds. The drama began on Thursday when a passer-by spotted the two - who appeared to be pensioners - sheltering in a cliffside cove at the...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2005 – The Defense Department will open the site of the planned Pentagon Memorial and the existing America's Heroes Memorial to the public for the first time on Sept. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Military honor guard tour guides will lead tours and answer questions during this four-hour period, and a model of the future Pentagon Memorial will be on display, according to a DoD press release. The outdoor Pentagon Memorial is currently being developed at the southwest corner of the Pentagon Reservation. The memorial will feature 184 illuminated benches, arranged according to the victim's...

The America Supports You FREEDOM WALK is a walk of remembrance and support. Remembrance of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon, Twin Towers, and Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, and support of the many American men and women in uniform, past and present, who protect our freedom. Q2: When is the America Supports You FREEDOM WALK being held? A2: The America Supports You FREEDOM WALK is being held on September 11, 2005, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Pentagon South parking lot and is free and open to anyone who registers.http://www.asyfreedomwalk.com/about.html

ATLANTA (AP) - Ted Turner, Henry Aaron and the later former Mayor Maynard Jackson Jr. were among 11 people inducted to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame on Friday. Members of the diverse group stood at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site with a plaque containing their footprints and had their shoes preserved in display cases. "This is the celebration of a few brave and courageous souls, men and women, whose personal sacrifice and commitment to justice was free of malice, greed and self-promotion," Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said. Xernona Clayton, who created the Walk of Fame,...

A 46-year-old former Royal Marine who braved 14 arrests and five months in jail to walk the length of Britain wearing nothing but his boots sets out on Thursday to repeat the naked journey -- and this time with his girlfriend. Stephen Gough and hairdresser Melanie Roberts, 33, will strip off and set out from Land's End in Cornwall, at the southeastern tip of England, on an 874-mile nude trek to John O'Groats in Scotland. "Why do it with no clothes on? To celebrate the fact that I'm a human being and that there is nothing shameful in being a...

Steve Vaught tells everyone he's walking across America because he's fat and doesn't want to be. He fears he'll be dead before his children grow up. "There aren't that many 50-year-old 375-pound guys waddling around," he says with a smile. Vaught, 39, who lives in Valley Center with his wife and two kids, began walking from Oceanside April 10, bound for New York City. But if you sit and talk with Vaught, he'll eventually tell you there's more to his story than excess weight. He has demons that need exorcising, memories that need to be dealt with. Fifteen years ago,...