Flag Across America has been featured on Bryant Gumbel's CBS Early Show and in USA Today, and it was organized by a Cooperstown graduate.

Michael Burr, a pilot for American Airlines and former Navy pilot, was attending a baseball game at Fenway Park in the middle of September with his children when he decided to organize the relay run.

"After what happened on September 11, I didn't know how to react. My wife Diane and I had just seen an old friend of mine who spent thirty-two years in the Navy and another thirty as an American Airlines pilot a week or so before the tragedy. A few days later, we found out that he and his wife had been passengers aboard Flight 77 that flew into the Pentagon," Burr said.

In 1985, while aboard the USS Saratoga, Burr lost a friend who flew into the water during a training exercise. In response, Burr organized a thirty mile run. His idea to organize another run mushroomed when he went on the internet, and rather than just stretching between Boston and Washington DC, a span that would include New York, the run ended up being a cross-country affair.

"Everyone started to wonder when the patriotism was going to start wearing off," said Burr from a cell phone aboard a motor home in Oklahoma City on Tuesday afternoon. "We're doing the terrorists a big favor by keeping anthrax on the front page."

When the run started on October 11, Burr ran up to 37 miles a day for the first few days. He ran alone through the Holland Tunnel, which was still closed at that time, and was joined by other runners at Ground Zero. Someone is always carrying the flag during the run.

"We try to discourage people from being flag hogs," laughed Burr.

Each destination along the runners' path has brought a story to light, Burr said. Cordell, Oklahoma, was recently ravaged by a tornado and a third of the buildings were lost. No lives were claimed by the natural disaster. In Ardmore, Oklahoma, there's a football arena bigger than Shea Stadium, Burr said, and when the runners arrived at 11:00 at night it was packed with people.

"We ran through," Burr said. "We thought there was a football game. But it turns out there wasn't. They were there to see us."

Paul Heath, head of the Survivor's Association in Oklahoma City, gave runners a tour of the memorial site where cement chairs commemorate the lives lost in the Oklahoma City bombing.

"We were given a huge quilt with a hand holding a flag," Burr said. "It was huge, symbolic and moving."

In Calhoun, Louisiana, five hundred children stood outside their school as the runner passed, chanting USA, USA, USA.

"It's very much an emotional roller coaster," said Burr.

On Saturday, the pack made its way to American Airlines Stadium in Texas, where they were joined by a man named Joe Luciano.

"His daughter was supposed to marry a NYC firefighter," Burr said. "But he's still in the rubble at Ground Zero."

J.C. Watts also ran.

"He's a black conservative republican," Burr said. "He was drafted by the Jets and played football in Canada before he became a congressman. While we were running he asked my opinion on the aviation security bill and air marshals."

Mike Burr's father, Ray Burr, is justice in the town of Middlefield.

"I think he's nuts for doing this," Burr said. But he's also the first to point out the merits of his son's effort, and the fact that his name is being dropped in the news and on television.

Burr will be making his way back to the northeast to participate in a statue dedication in New York City's Central Park. The statue will commemorate the New York Marathon, and it is the first statue unveiled in the park in over sixty years.

So far, 3,500 runners have registered across the country and there are six thousand volunteers making the relay go more smoothly. People from 66 different countries have hit the website. The group can be contacted at www. flagrun.org, and they desperately need corporate donations to keep the operation going. Flag Across America will wrap up on Veteran's Day, November 11, in Los Angeles.

To make a donation, call (646) 334-4944.