Soldiers assigned to 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, lead a 25-mile foot march known as the Manchu Mile while carrying the battalion colors at Fort Carson, Colo., Dec. 10, 2020. The soldiers executed the march in squads and while wearing masks in order to comply with COVID-19 mitigation policies and procedures. The troops try to perform the march twice a year. (Daniel Parker/U.S. Army)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Tribune News Service) — As more than 700 exhausted soldiers finished a 25-mile march Friday morning on Fort Carson, some limped, some smiled and a few carried flags after walking and running through the night carrying 35-pound packs.
Spc. Haiven Soy was among those who got bullied by the wind as he carried a flag in addition to his pack during the march that featured 1,400 feet in elevation gain and a few water crossings that left boots wet and feet soggy.
“You definitely feel accomplished ... whether you’re first place or last place,” Soy said.
For Soy and his platoon, one of the major challenges was staying together, which although tough was meant to prepare them for the battlefield.
Most troops participating in the grueling Manchu Mile march were part of the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, and paying homage to their unit’s involvement in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
The Boxers, who called themselves the “Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” were opposed to outside influence and attacked Christian villagers, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology essay. The Americans along with troops from seven other countries helped put down the rebellion.
When 9th Infantry Regiment troops landed, they had to walk 85 miles to the siege of Tientsin, a major turning point in favor of the foreign alliance.
The troops try to honor that walk at least twice a year, explained Col. Liam Walsh, the commander of 4th Battalion.
“It ensures that our soldiers are preparing to do hard things,” Walsh said of the tradition he believes started in the 1980s.
The overnight schedule for the march is meant to mitigate the heat, he explained, and flows into a long weekend, so that soldiers can recover.
While most were members of the 4th Battalion, the event drew 170 soldiers from other units who volunteered to participate, Walsh said. Six guardians and two airmen also took part, a Fort Carson statement said.
Staff Sgt. Hans Flaschentrager, who works in a cyber electromagnetic activity cell, was among those who wanted to do the march and practiced with other soldiers completing two ruck marches a week.
“Physical fitness is the most important thing you have to keep up with in the Army,” he said, adding that no soldier has the privilege of being out of shape.
In addition to the march, the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment commemorates the Boxer Rebellion with a belt buckle that bares the unit’s motto “Keep up the Fire Men,” the dying words of the commander who led them at the siege of Tientsin. It’s the only unit in the Army with an approved belt buckle, Walsh said.
When the unit leaves for South Korea in the coming months, Walsh expects that its members will host the Manchu Mile march there, for the first time since 2015.
Two battalions from the regiment were stationed in South Korea and hosted many Manchu Mile marches on the peninsula.
“It’ll be a big deal to bring it back,” Walsh said.
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