Staff Sgt. Massarelli, 32, died in June 2012 in an accident involving two convoys traveling in opposite directions while he was deployed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In May, NASCAR honored fallen service members at the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, as 40 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars had the name of a fallen service member on their windshields during the race. Massarelli's name appeared on the No. 30 TMG Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Josh Wise.
Richard Clark, an Army veteran, founded FLAGS 4 FALLEN about four years ago, when he got the idea of carrying a flag across the finish line at half and full marathons to honor the memory of the more than 6,000 young men and women who gave their lives serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His group has carried the flag for PFC Austin McReynolds in the 2015 Grand Lake Marathon in Celina, as well as Staff Sgt. Wesley Williams. Reynolds was killed by a drunk driver in Kentucky. Shaina Schmigel, who died in a paratrooper training exercise two years ago, was also honored by the group.
Clark said that the idea of honoring those who served is something that many Americans share. The FLAGS 4 FALLEN group is growing with runners this year who share his passion.
“Two weeks ago we were only two runners who had ran two flags and had one race scheduled for this September,” Clark said. “Last Monday it just exploded, and I had a bunch of runners contact us and volunteer to run all over the U.S. We have seven scheduled right now, and we are finding families for three more.”
Mary Massarelli was pleased to hear that the group was going to honor her son this weekend in Virginia.
“I just heard about it last week,” she said. “We are grateful to all of the men and women who participate in the FLAGS 4 FALLEN races that are held throughout the nation.”
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