Sergent Hille explained, “We have to do our best to continue to remember the ones who paid the ultimate sacrifice for what we have the privilege of doing in this country.”
The Los Angeles Times ran a photo for Memorial Day showing “Sgt. Eric Hille, in full uniform, standing over the grave of a fallen colleague Sgt. Eric Holke at Riverside National Cemetery.” The caption of the moving picture stated that Hill walked 13 miles in full uniform with 70 lbs of gear to the cemetery, but it did not give an explanation of why.
KCAL9‘s Tom Wait was able to get in touch with Sgt Hille and get the full story:
Hille, a Cal Fire engineer, decided to start a new Memorial Day tradition this year by marching to a fallen soldier’s grave. He decided to start with someone he knew well, someone he would call a brother. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do a road march from here in Moreno Valley.’ I picked station 91 to Riverside National Cemetery in full combat gear,” Hille said.
He loaded up 70 pounds of combat gear for his 13-mile sojourn — no walk in the park. He told Wait a lot of emotions came up during the march. It wasn’t easy, emotionally or physically, but he made it. “When I could actually see Riverside National Cemetery is when it started to get hard. I was running out of water and started to cramp up,” he says.
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According to Hille next year he won’t be alone on his march. 20 other individuals have signed up to march along with him on Memorial Day 2014.