SC’s Third Army celebrates 93rd birthday with run

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AP) — The Third Army is celebrating its 93rd birthday with a three-mile run starting in front of its Patton Hall headquarters on Shaw Air Force Base.

Third Army spokesman Charlie Barrett says Friday’s celebration marks the founding of the unit on Nov. 7, 1918, at Chaumont, France, during the closing days of World War I.

Barrett says that after the run, the oldest and youngest soldiers from the unit are marking the occasion with a cake-cutting ceremony.

The Third Army, which supports Army units in the Mideast through Afghanistan, moved to new headquarters at Shaw after the Pentagon ordered the closure of Fort McPherson in Georgia. It is now next to the Ninth Air Force, which covers U.S. air units in the same region.