At 4:15am on Sunday morning, December 7th, a group of 16 ruckers from F3 Louisville departed Seneca Park (The O) enroute to J-Town Veterans Memorial (Vets) We rucked to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War 2.
Along with the weight each man carried in his ruck, we also passed four 40 pound sandbags around as team weight. Each bag represented one of the battleships sunk on that fateful day (U.S.S. West Virginia, U.S.S. California, U.S.S. Oklahoma, and the U.S.S. Arizona)
Every mile of the route we stopped to read the citation of a different service member who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their individual acts of heroism during the attack.
The ruck through the pre-dawn darkness of Louisville was solemn, as we remembered the more than 2,400 men who perished at Pearl Harbor all those years ago.
We completed the 9 mile ruck in just under 3 hours, arriving at The Vet well ahead of schedule. Our F3 brother Showboat arranged for a welcome party consisting of coffee and bagels, as well as a color guard from the local G.I. Joe American Legion Post 244. While they got set up, we circled around the seal and knocked out some merkins, burpees, squats, bicep curls, and much more.
At sunrise we kicked off a short program consisting of the playing of the Star Spangled Banner (as performed by Chris Stapleton) , the Pledge of Allegiance, the presentation of the colors, and the playing of Taps followed by a moment of silence.
In closing, a few words honoring the dead and their sacrifice were offered up along with a short prayer.
At the tail end of the event we were joined by a WLKY camera crew which resulted in the ruck being featured on the 6pm evening news.
Thanks are due to former F3 Louisville Ruck Q McAfee, for planning and organizing the original Pearl Harbor Ruck back in 2019. It was an honor to bring this event back after a 6 year hiatus.
Thank you to all who participated and supported the 2025 Pearl Harbor Ruck. Until next year…REMEMBER.
F3 Louisville 