JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - While cross-country skiing is traditionally done on the snow, two 834th Aviation Support Battalion Soldiers recently decided to roller ski the 51-kilometer (31.7 miles) Birkebeiner race on Joint Base Balad, Iraq's flight line.
"The Birkebeiner is the largest cross-country ski marathon in North America," said Army Capt. Ken Harris, the 834th ASB chaplain. "It is modeled after the Norwegian Birkebeiner, a race commemorating the miraculous rescue of baby Prince Haakon by two Soldiers, who skied through the wilderness saving him from assassination."
The team of Harris and Sgt. John Kurtz, the Co. A, 834th ASB unit administrator, plotted a six- kilometer round trip on the JBB's west flight line.
Harris arrived at JBB only moments before the race due to sandstorms in Baghdad, Iraq, where he was visiting 834th ASB Soldiers.
For Sgt. Kurtz, the race is a way of connecting to home.
"I know a lot of good friends who will be racing stateside," Sgt. Kurtz said. "[A special] thanks goes to my friend, Steve, for sending his roller skis and poles half way around the world for me to use."
Both participants feel privileged be able to participate in this event even when far from its stateside venue of Cable, Wis.
"If it were not for a couple miracles and the heroic skiing of two Soldiers, a priest and his mother, Prince Hakon would not have survived to reign over Norway's Golden Years," Harris said. "As a Soldier, a chaplain, and an avid skier, I appreciate the opportunity to remember both God's faithfulness in a time of trial and the hope for golden years ahead for the country in which I am skiing, whether America or Iraq."
The American Birkebeiner, also known as the Birkie, was launched in 1973 as a small race calling on skiers to challenge themselves against the Wisconsin north woods. The race was patterned after the Birkebeiner Rennetin held in Lillehammer, Norway, which commemorates an historic event in that nation.
During a civil war in the 13th century, an invading force was about to capture an infant prince and heir to the throne. Two Viking warriors, called "birkebeiners" for the birch bark leggings they wore, took the child and skied 55 kilometers to safety. The baby went on to become a great Norwegian king, Haakon Hakonsson.