Sports360AZ
Story by Andrew Bell
The location is Sloan Park in Mesa. It’s about a month out from spring training and there is a trailer parked in the back lot outside of the Chicago Cubs facility.
Out of the trailer steps a man with a rainbow headband in a pair of jogging shorts. Meet Ernie Andrus: The 95-year-old World War II veteran who is planning to run across the United States for the second time in five years. Yes, you read that right. The second time.
A medic for the Navy during World War II, Andrus’ journey to running across the country started with a mission. It was a mission to preserve and make money for the LST 325 Ship Memorial Inc. The LST 325 is a World War II vessel that Andrus helped get from the Isle of Crete, Greece to the United States in 2000.
Andrus’ story was documented on the History Channel in a series called “The Return of LST 325.” The ship is now docked in Evansville, Indiana. Andrus is raising money to keep the ocean liner preserved and to move it back to Omaha Beach in Normandy, where it was located during D-Day. The LST 325 is the only ship of its kind that is still operational.
Andrus started running 200-mile relays before giving his first coast-to-coast run a try. That’s where the idea to try and get the ship back to France first began.
“I did my first 200-mile relay…I got so much attention because nobody my age had run in one of those before,” Andrus said. “I thought, ‘Gee, if an 88-year old man can get this much attention in a 200-mile relay, how about a 90-year old running coast-to-coast?’ Maybe we could get enough money to get the ship back to Normandy. We had talked about that before.”
https://www.sports360az.com/2019/01/valle-luna-making-a-difference-second-time-across-the-usa-for-wwii-vet/
Andrus owns a business license, and the name of his foundation is Coast2CoastRuns.
His first run occurred in 2013, where he ran from the Pacific Ocean shores of San Diego, California to the Atlantic shores of Brunswick, Georgia.
Altogether, the trek was over a span of three years from the age of 90 to 93. Andrus is now 95 and in hopes of finishing the voyage again. This time around, his run will start on the East Coast and finish on the Pacific.
The run is for something historic, but Andrus has other reasons for hauling as many miles as he does. He has a sheer joy to run. It’s not a hassle. It’s fun.
“I always say I never learned to walk until I was 40 because I just ran everywhere. In fact, my mother told me when I was eight months old when I stood up, and she said I ran instead of walked,” Andrus joked.
A native of Kansas and born on a farm near the Missouri River, Andrus’ life and his tales span the globe. His mother was a Harvey Girl, a term coined by businessman named Fred Harvey, who owned Harvey House Restaurants.
These food services were made available to passengers on trains, and the Harvey Women were viewed as pioneers in regards to chain restaurant services. Andrus said his mother did this job in order to support his family during a time of poverty around the Great Depression.
Later on, he made his way to Los Angeles from the Midwest, and eventually found himself in World War II. He can recall the moment he joined the the war, and he can also recall his memories and joys when the war was over.
As a Navy Corpsman (a medic in today’s terms), Andrus recalls moving supplies and troops during the war. He made trips from San Francisco to Australia, and many places in between. He has gruesome memories of the men who he transported, but he also has memories of small things that made his day, particularly the reaction of many wounded soldiers when they made their way back to the U.S. and into Treasure Island in San Francisco.
“What I like best about it is when you bring those wounded back…I would always make sure I was on the top deck when we saw the Golden Gate Bridge come into view,” Andrus said. “You see all the expressions on those faces. It’d make you cry…Those are the things I remember most about the duty on that transport.”
However, those stories were back then, and Andrus is focused on what is in front of him: A second run across the country.
His trip begins in March and he will not be alone. He has assistance in the form of transportation. He travels in a motor home accompanied by a driver and a Coast2Coast car that is towed on the back of the RV.
Andrus has property in Prescott and stopped in Mesa a couple weeks back. He’s now in New Mexico, still running and training. He has many people who run alongside him on his trip, from friends to random people.
To keep pace with his age and physical condition, Andrus runs 2-3 times a week, taking interval days in between days to rest and recover. He plans to finish on the West Coast at the age of 100 years old.
Ultimately, Andrus has been around the world and has vast life experiences. And while most people look at their elder years as a challenge, Andrus is still hitting the ground running.
Note: If you would like to learn more about Ernie and his cause, you can visit his website: www.coast2coastruns.com. For more information on the LST 325, you can visit www.lstmemorial.org
