This team just walked 770 miles to honor fallen Marine Raiders. Here's how it helped them heal.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Jenna Kemp laughed nervously as she stretched out Saturday morning in the parking lot of a Han-Dee Hugo’s gas station about in rural Winnabow, North Carolina, approximately 556 miles from south of Camp Lejeune. Ignoring the light rain beginning to fall, she donned a black baseball cap, aviator sunglasses and hoisted a heavy military rucksack over her shoulders.

It was the Kemp’s first time Kemp would be marching that she was able to ruck with the Raiders, who were approaching the end of a grueling 770-mile trek from Florida to Camp Lejeune as part of the Marine Raider Memorial March. She was there to honor Step by step, the Raiders undertook a 770-mile, eleven-day, 24/7 odyssee from Navarre, Florida, to Camp Lejeune in memory of her husband, Staff Sgt. Kerry Kemp, and 10 ten other service troops killed members who perished in a Florida helicopter crash exactly one year prior. ago.

Staff Sgt. Kemp and six other MARSOC Marines were   and While on a training mission when their on March 10, 2015, the Raider’s UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crashed off the coast of Florida into the struck the waters of Santa Rosa Sound. from Navarre. The accident killed all took the lives of all on board - seven operators with the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion along with and four Louisiana Army Air National Guardsmen.

It marked- marking the deadliest day for the Marines' special operations command Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command since it formed in 2006.

The tragedy ripped a deep wound throughout the community — the families, the Raiders and the Marine Corps. country - But but the epic ruck march was a chance for all to reflect on and celebrate their lives: to heal, to grow and to honor, Jenna Kemp she said.

The team stepped up to the side of Route 17, prepared to meet the incoming ruckers team.

Sr. Chief Petty Officer Rubens Dacosta, MARSOC’s senior enlisted medical adviser advisor, made final adjustments to the straps of his rucksack.

Around the bend, the flashing lights of two state patrol cars escorting the incoming relay team crept into view. A flag carried by Gunnery Sgt. Andy Harrison, a flag snapped in the wind. It showed a white skull set in a red diamond, surrounded by five stars on a midnight blue background — the emblem of the Marine Corps Raiders. 

As the teams met up, they handed off the Raider flag and a paddle — belonging to the fallen Marines, the only piece of equipment to survive the crash intact.

"It’s good to see another wife," Destiny Flynn said as Jenna Kemp's team stepped off after the other team had departed down the road. "It’s good to know there’s someone else there that’s going through and understands what you’re going through."

Liam Flynn would have thought his wife she was "freakin’ crazy" for taking part in this ruck march, she said, but it was helping her deal with her loss. provided a lot of healing for her.

Over the last year, the close-knit group of women — five wives and two fiancées —fiances - relied on have leaned on each other to work through their collective grief. The Raiders crash also left behind seven children, two of whom were born after the accident.

"Those six girls, they are not just friends, they are family" Jenna Kemp said of the Raiders' partners. "I couldn’t have gotten through this last year without them. ," Kemp said. "We lean on each other for support, we do dinners together, when one of us is down, we call the other and pick each other up."

Marine Capt. Cpt. Lindsay Pirek, who lost her fiancé Capt.  fiance Cpt. Stanford Shaw III in the crash, recalled receiving the initial call from Dawn Seif, wife of teammate Staff Sgt. Andrew Seif. That moment and how they immediately banded them together.

Pirek, currently deployed as a public affairs officer with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, also said that the ongoing support from the Raiders themselves has been equally invaluable.

It’s a sentiment that has been born out in practice over the last year, each of the women told Marine Corps Times.As they have worked through their loss, together and individually, the Raider community has invariably stood by them, always faithful to the families of their fallen brethren.

"A lot of times after a service member is killed, people stick around for a month or two, because it’s fresh, it’s new, but [MARSOC] really takes it seriously when someone passes," she Kemp said. "They haven’t left our side, we know that they are always there for us and they reach out and make sure we’re OK ok and taken care of."

Inside MARSOC, the crash has affected the community from the top on down: The impact of the crash hit the Raider community from on the Raiders’ world was absolute, from its top leaders the highest-ranking officers to its the rank-and-file operators. In a world of humble and quiet professionals not accustomed to bringing their work to the light of day, the bonds formed between them and their families grow immeasurably close, and the loss of the Raiders rippled through the small community of humble and quiet professionals. 

Staff Sgt. Nathan Harris knew six of the seven Raiders personally through deployments or training at the amphibious operations course in Florida, where he is an instructor. The helicopter crash set Harris on a mission to honor their legacy. On tThe very next day, he began organizing the Marine Raider Memorial March on his personal time beyond the rigorous demands of his profession.

Harris began working with Brothers in Arms Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting wounded Raiders and families of fallen MARSOC Marines.  of the fallen in the Marines’ special operations community. They set out to raise funds for the seven Raider families, along with as well as basic expenses tied to the 770-mile ruck logistics along the journey.

Volunteers immediately stepped forward, and to the plate and they began planning planned the route. The team also and arranged for critical support along the way, including law enforcement escorts and food and shelter.

Breaking into seven relay teams of three to four people — including current and former Raiders, family members and friends of the fallen — they stepped off on slogged day and night in 10-12 mile stretches towards Stone Bay, MARSOC's headquarters here.

Key to march was the paddle that was passed between Destiny Flynn and Jenna Kemp’s teams. After it was recovered from the crash site, it was and inscribed with the names of the fallen by the surviving members of Marine Special Operations Team 8231.

In passing that paddle, the Raiders were also honoring their legacy. When the unit was first formed in World War II to conduct high-speed amphibious landings and surprise raids behind enemy lines in the Pacific, each Raider was issued a paddle. In the event of death, his paddle was inscribed and presented to surviving family members. MSOT 8231’s paddle, inscribed with the names of the fallen Raiders, was now en route to the MARSOC family at Stone Bay.

Outside the gates of Camp Lejeune on Monday morning, outside of Camp Lejeune, two days after the paddle passed from Flynn’s to Kemp’s team, hundreds of kids of the nearby Dixon Elementary School lined surged the chain link fences, their American flags flapping against the crisp Spring breeze. In near-unison they belted out "U-S-A!!" with an intensity to rival any tickertape parade, nearly drowning out a nearby bagpiper’s refrain of ‘God Bless America’.

The children reached out their hands, eager for a high-five from the 19 men and women passing by on the final mile of the final leg of the Marine Raider Memorial March. Despite their visible exhaustion under the weight of heavy rucksacks, the adults beamed and exuberantly returned high-fives, hugs and salutes.

As they neared their endpoint homecoming, several hundred supporters lined sparsely populated North Carolina Highway Route 210 to cheer them ion, waving American flags and posters that stated placards reading "Never above you, never below you, always beside you."

Marching past Marines and MARSOC's leaders were  brass lined up to welcome them home. The ruckers they made their way to the parade field and finally dropped their heavy packs rucks.

Unwavering, they stood at attention for the National Anthem before hundreds of Marines and the Gold Star families who had come to support them. see them home.The chaplain referenced observed their sacrifices and the physical hardship they had endured, and noted that they could not do it alone.

Harris stepped to the mike and agreed, humbly thanking the myriad supporters who helped make had made the march possible happen.

"Think about that ... think about [...] 770 miles; what that takes, what kind of discipline, and what it means to get it all done in just 11 days," he said. MARSOC Commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Osterman said. "It really is an incredible accomplishment."

Destiny Flynn stepped forward to as well to gracefully place the paddle from of her husband’s team into Wolfenbarger’s hands. He stood silently reflecting on it before addressing the crowd.