Our walk today was dedicated in honor of :
Navy AO1 Vincent A. Filpi III, Age 41 of Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Died Mar. 22, 2011 during Operation Enduring Freedom
Vincent was assigned to the aircraft carrier Enterprise
Petty Officer 1st Class Vincent A. Filpi III, 41, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., died as a result of a non-combat related incident. Filpi was assigned to USS Enterprise as an aviation ordnanceman. Enterprise is currently deployed to the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Vincent was born in Massachusetts
We had a great 5 mile walk barefoot along the beach at Maramar Beach, Fl. When we started their was already a lot of people out on the beach. As we walked we put our feet in the ocean and we got stopped several times along the way with people wondering what we were doing. What normally would take about an hour and 40 min ended up taking us over four hours to walk. We got stopped along the way often. We walked 2 and a half miles down the beach and then walked back. It was amazing. I loved getting to talk to so many people and let them know what we do. I gave out over 30 cards with our website on it. This was a very first walk in another state and our first walk barefoot and our first walk, walking on a beach with a fallen hero. It was amazing. We met a lot of people from Tennessee. We even met someone from Crossville, TN. Of course we did not get any honks since we were on the beach but wow, was it nice.