R.NIAL BRADSHAW/U.S. Air Force

Airmen assigned to the 775th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight pull a weighted skid along the 9.5-mile route during the Air Force Office of Special Investigation’s 9th Annual Ruck March at Hill Air Force Base, June 17. The event honored Special Agent Ryan Balmer who was killed in action by an improvised-explosive device in 2007. After graduating from the United States Air Force Special Investigations Academy in 2005, Balmer was assigned to AFOSI’s Region 1, Detachment 113, Hill AFB. On June 5, 2007, while temporarily resassigned to AFOSI Expeditionary Detachment 2410, Balmer was in a convoy returning to Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq. Approximately two miles south of the base, an IED was detonated adjacent to the convoy, instantly killing him.