By Katie Nelson
HIGHLINE TIMES

Lifelong Burien resident Ralph Palumbo led a team to support the families of fallen Marines in the annual 100 Miles for One Mind run around the Puget Sound area last weekend.

The Aug. 10-11 run was the third headed up by Always Brothers, a 501c3 organization begun in 2011 by a group of Marines stationed together on presidential guard duty in the early to mid-1990s. While catching up via Facebook, the men soon learned of the fate of one of their own, Captain Tyler Swisher, who was killed in Iraq in 2005.

“He left behind three kids and his wife, and we decided that we wanted to do something to honor him, and to raise money for the education funds of his three kids,” said Dan Neilsen, vice president of Always Brothers. “We decided we were going to run 100 miles for Tyler. … We formed this nonprofit and started putting together the route.”

The group ran from Camp David, where many of them were stationed, to Swisher’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery, a distance of 100 miles. They raised approximately $20,000 that was put toward the college tuition of Swisher’s three children.

Since then, Always Brothers has expanded the number of people they impact and in their financial goals. In 2012, the organization raised $85,000 in memory of the 23 fallen Marines in the LIMA Company of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment.

This year, Neilsen says the group ran to support research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, both common wounds for Marines and other military personnel.

Palumbo got involved with the cause through friends who belong to the International Mental Health Research Association, an organization dedicated to finding cures and treatments for brain disorders. For Palumbo, the run is a family affair: his wife, grown son and daughter and their spouses participated with him.

Speaking to the Highline Times before the run Palumbo said, “This is our first attempt. I think we’re fairly prepared. We’ve been training — we’ve lost a couple of team members … but we’ll get there.”

Palumbo’s seven-person team has already raised $22,000 on their own through donations from family, friends and others wishing to back them in their quest.

“We’re seeing support from across the board,” he said. “My wife and I sent emails to everybody we thought might be interested.”

The run was set to begin Saturday, Aug. 10 at 6 a.m. on Lakeside Avenue in Seattle and go through multiple cities, including Mercer Island, Black Diamond, Maple Valley and Orting. The runners took a one-hour break in Orting, where they changed shoes or clothes, ate, and prepared for the night portion of the run. The small town is fitting for the run’s purpose, Neilsen said.

“That comfort station is actually being manned by the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs. It’s appropriate because they have the Washington Soldiers Home there in Orting,” Palumbo said. “We are also planning to build a Traumatic Brain Injury unit on that property near the soldiers’ home. So it’s really neat that we’ve gotten them involved as sort of a cross-promotion for both of us.”

After the break, the runners continued on through Sumner, Kent, the Duwamish Bike Trail, and over the West Seattle Bridge, where they ended at CenturyLink Field at approximately 9:30 a.m. Historically, it has taken 27 hours to finish the course.

Neilsen expected between 40 and 50 people would participate in the run, and says the emphasis is not on who finishes first, but rather that all participants will finish together.

“It is not a race: we don’t say, ‘See ya at the finish line.’ … We run together to keep a pace,” he said. “It really is a true test of self-sacrifice and determination. … We’re going to help each other get across the finish line.”