Local Marine Veterans Take 13-Mile Hike To Honor Kabul Victims

ENFIELD, CT — Following the loss of 13 U.S. service members in an Aug. 26 attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, many citizens and businesses have exhibited their sympathies in symbolic ways, such as bars placing 13 beers at a reserved table or the placement of 13 American flags on overpasses. Marine Corps veteran Kyle Brackett of Enfield decided to pay tribute to his fallen colleagues in what he saw as a fitting way for a serviceman.

Brackett and two fellow former Marines, Owen Andresen of Enfield and Grant King of suffield, decided to hike 13 miles from Enfield to Stafford. With backpacks loaded, they set off from Hazardville Park at 4 a.m. Sunday, and arrived at the CVS Plaza in Stafford Springs about five hours later.

"Having been in the Marine Corps, it hits me and my fellow veterans and those still serving a little harder than it would most," Brackett said before the trio's departure. "We genuinely feel like we lost 13 of our brothers and sisters out there. It's especially hard knowing that they died just days before the end of this 20-year war on terror and the end of our presence in Afghanistan. The sad truth is some people will forget and just move on with their lives and that's just what happens, that's how life is, but the families of those who died and everyone affected by all this will never be able to forget. They'll just learn to cope with it and live through it."

Brackett said the decision to make a 13-mile trek was easy.

"I chose to do this, I consider myself blessed to be here today and to have been able to feel that welcome home embrace from my family after my deployment to Afghanistan and to see the other side of life after the Marine Corps," he said. "I know my fellow veterans feel the same way. Unfortunately there are some that never got to experience that; they gave absolutely everything for this country so that we can be free. The least we can do is honor them, remember them and never forget the magnitude of the sacrifice they made for this nation. I felt getting other fellow veterans together to do this hike with me just kind of helps us all cope with all this, to re-enforce that tight bond we have and remind each other that we're not alone in this. It is not just me - it's a collective effort for sure, we are a team, we served as brothers and are still brothers until the day we die."

All three Marines were corporals who served from 2016 through 2020. Brackett, 23, was an infantry assaultman; King, 24, was an infantry machine gunner; and Andresen, 23, was an infantry rifleman.

King said, "We were all infantrymen, and there is no better bond than suffering together."

"It's good that we live in a country where we can go out and exercise something like this, and do it without harassment," Andresen said.

Brackett said, "I feel it is my obligation and my responsibility to be the best example I can be, to live a life worth dying for, to be a person worth dying for, and to keep living my life to the absolute fullest with passion and purpose and keep being the best representation of those who have fallen that I can be. They deserve nothing less than to be represented as the best humanity had to offer, who in their final days showed nothing but courage, compassion, and love for their nation and the people they were trying to save. They deserve to be remembered, and their stories deserve to be told."

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