By Ensign Nora A. Hill, USS Green Bay Public Affairs
USS GREEN BAY, At Sea (NNS) -- Sailors aboard the fourth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay (LPD 20) hosted a run Aug. 14 in conjunction with an annual event in Wisconsin designed to commemorate a fallen Marine.
The Jerabek Challenge Memorial Run, hosted annually in Hobart, Wis., the hometown of Pvt. 1st Class Ryan Jerabek who was killed in Ramadi, Iraq, April 6, 2004, is a yearly four-mile run.
As part of Green Bay's ties to the state of Wisconsin, Jerabek is one of several fallen heroes from the state honored in the ship's main passageway, nicknamed the "Hall of Heroes."
Green Bay Sailors have done a yearly companion run to the Jerabek Challenge, originally scheduled for the ship's in-port San Diego period. Due to operational commitments, the run was rescheduled for Green Bay's in-port period in Seattle, Wash., but was subsequently cancelled.
Sailors and Marines ran laps on Green Bay's flight deck, completing 36 laps and matching the four-mile distance runners in Wisconsin completed the morning of Aug. 14.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Rudy Contreras, who was part of of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, the same battalion to which Jerabek was assigned at the time of his death, said the run had a special meaning.
"For someone that was actually there and endured a lot of the same hardships, it means a lot when people show recognition for your sacrifice, and prove that you are truly not forgotten," he said.
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