Abby Knight
JSU News Bureau

JACKSONVILLE -- October 18, 2002 -- Jonothan Green, Joe Guthrie, Jonathan St. John and Jason Nifong spend their college days in the peaceful setting of Jacksonville State University, preparing for war.

They take classes on leadership, marksmanship, first aid and survival. They repel off of stadiums, climb ropes and practice what to do if a grenade is thrown at them.

To them, determination is not a state of mind, it's a fact of life.

And when they became members of the Jacksonville State University Gamecock Battalion Army 10-miler team, they didn't do it to try to complete the 10 miles through the Nation's capital.

They joined to complete it.

They left Jacksonville on Thursday, headed northeast to Washington D.C., the city of memorials and monuments, politics and government.

Captain John Nolan, who is the freshman and sophomore ROTC instructor, as well as the advisor for the 10-miler team, was unaware of any changes being made to the 10 mile race to be held October 20th. Over 18,000 runners are expected to participate this year.

D.C. is a city that has been under siege since October 2nd, when an unknown shooter began targeting and killing people. Since then he has killed 9 people and injured two.

But while the shooter hides, cowering behind bushes, driving away in windowless vans, shooting at old men, young women and school age boys, the four men of JSU's ROTC Army 10-miler team will be running down the wide streets of Washington D.C.

"This is the art of courage," wrote Victoria Lincoln, "to see things as they are and still believe that the victory lies not with those who avoid the bad, but those who taste, in living awareness, every drop of the good."