Columbus, Texas (AFNS) - A team of 18 special tactics Airmen have one objective in mind: honor the fallen.

The team recently began an 812-mile march from Medina Annex, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas to Hurlburt Field, Fla., to commemorate 17 fallen comrades. As they marched out at 5 a.m, carrying 50-pound rucksacks and a baton with a fallen Airman's name, the only sound heard was the footsteps of the marchers.

In 2009, Master Sgt. Ken Huhman and Capt. Sam Schindler, who were both assigned to the 342nd Training Squadron at Medina Annex, founded the Tim Davis Memorial March as a way to remember the fallen special tactics Airmen and honor their families.

So far, the march has taken place each year since, although it is not an annual event, officials said. It only goes on if a special tactics Airman dies in combat. The timeline extends one year from October. The 2011 march planning began after three special tactics Airmen died Aug. 6 in a CH-47 crash in Afghanistan.

One of the combat controllers participating in the march is Senior Airman John Hansard, assigned to the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron at McChord Field. He said he feels the march is a very worthwhile way to remember the fallen and represent the 22nd STS, which has members with very close ties to the fallen.

"I knew Mark Forester and Danny Sanchez, but one of my friends at the squadron was best friends with Forester," Hansard said. "He is deployed and asked me to march in his place to honor Forester."

Hansard did not know what to expect along the way but said he was surprised when they marched through a local town and about 25 people were standing on the side of the road cheering them on.