TAKE OFF… An F-16 takes off from the Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing to participate in base exercises.
By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
The Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing held its 2nd annual Stinger 5K on Sunday, September 10th.
The race took place on base at the fighter wing, which is also located at the Toledo Express Airport, and was sponsored by the 180th Fighter Wing Top 3 Council and Dave’s Running. Racers from all over the area met up at the base and prepared for the opening ceremony that took place at 7:45 a.m.
During the opening ceremony, Base Commander Col. Michael DiDio gave remarks along with the presentation of colors performed by the Honor Guard.
The race itself began at 8:00 a.m. with participants being able to run past F-16 fighter jets that were parked on the Stinger Tarmac.
Over a thousand racers came to participate in this year’s event, with each of them receiving a medal with a metal character that represents the base mascot.
The race had concluded around 9:00 a.m. with most participants completing the race by then. The first five finishers of the 5K were Henry Elling of Maumee, Braiden Welch of Grand Rapids, Steve Slivka of Maumee, Ethan Rozick of Whitehouse, and Clay Wasnich of Wauseon.
Following the race, Base Commander Michael Didio explained that this year’s race went very well and is expecting another event will be asked for since attendance has increased over last year.
“Today went great. I think that we had a bigger crowd, we had just over a thousand runners. We welcomed them to the base and showed off our facilities and the 9/11 Memorial on the weekend right before 9/11.”
“It has been a huge success overall. I would assume that, with the turnout increasing year over year and the fact that we have gotten a ton of support, I think that they will probably ask me to do this again next year.”
After most of the 5K runners had finished their race, small children were given the opportunity to have a little race of their own before everyone headed close to the Stinger Tarmac to watch the Stinger’s jets take off.
Eight F-16s took off in front of everyone who was at the race and came over to watch. It made for a perfect ending to what many said was a fun morning.
Jacob can be reached at jacob@thevillagereporter.com