Marine veteran and DAV benefits advocate Don Inns crosses the DAV 5K finish line while carrying an American flag.

Don Inns will never have the chance to outrun his friend Jeffrey Bruce Owen since losing a footrace to him more than 40 years ago. But he made the 2023 DAV 5K a walk to remember his fellow Marine.

Inns, a disabled veteran and DAV benefits advocate, participated in the 5K event on Veterans Day in Cincinnati in memory of Lance Cpl. Owen and all of the 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers killed by a terrorist truck bombing in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983.

Before deploying to Lebanon, Inns, who was Owen’s squad leader, had raced the 19-year-old Owen in a 10K in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

“While I led the first 8 kilometers of the run, Bruce ran a smarter race and crossed the finish line ahead of me,” Inns said. “I challenged him to a rematch, but it would have to wait until after we got back from our deployment to Beirut.

“Bruce beat me back from Beirut too … in a flag-draped coffin.”

Before deciding to run in honor of Owen, Inns, a Cincinnati native, asked Owen’s family members if it was OK to run in his memory. They said yes.

Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Bruce Owen smiling with a shell casing in Beirut.

“While the best days of my youth and running are behind me, I’ll be walking this 5K in memory of Bruce and all 241 we lost that dreadful Sunday morning,” said Inns, who raised $241 to honor every service member who was killed that day, including Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Bruce Owen.

Inns was one of 2,493 to participate in the in-person DAV 5K in Cincinnati. An additional 1,551 also signed up to participate nationwide as part of the virtual option.

Cincinnati-area high school teacher Chris Burke, who ran in his fifth consecutive DAV 5K, said the event is both a community builder and a way to “step out of my world and see the bigger picture.”

“To see, listen to and learn from those that have sacrificed for the greater good gives me a greater appreciation for their service and for the battles they face every day,” said Burke, who invites veterans into his history class to help bring to life his school lessons.

DAV’s 2020 Disabled American Veteran of the Year, Adam Greathouse, participating in his first DAV 5K, shared some of his story with the thousands of participants and veteran supporters during the event’s opening remarks.

The Army veteran detailed how he was exposed to chemical weapons in 2001 while he was deployed as part of an international peacekeeping mission to Kosovo.

Army veteran Adam Greathouse and his wife, Stacy, at the DAV 5K.

“It gave me a traumatic brain injury and major damage to my lungs and other organs,” he said. “After I fell into a coma, the Army sent a flag to my mother’s house to be draped over my coffin. I woke up two months later unable to move or breathe on my own. But, miraculously, here I am.”

Coming home injured, changed and feeling like a different person was difficult, the West Virginia native told the crowd.

“During that dark time, DAV came into my life and gave me purpose,” he said.

Since then, Greathouse has dedicated his life to serving others by volunteering with DAV. He now serves as commander for the DAV Department of West Virginia. “I believe in [DAV’s] mission because I know personally [DAV is] there for veterans,” Greathouse said. “Thanks to each of you for supporting our nation’s veterans when, where and how they need it most.”