Astronaut — A Real Astronaut — Lends A HAM At Turkey Day Road Race

MANCHESTER, CT — The Manchester Road Race loves its veterans.

But an astronaut?

In a "bear" suit?

That's right, not only was Dan Burbank at the race, but he lent a hand during as medical situation on Thanksgiving Day.

To be clear, we're not taking about some runner in the back of the field wearing a fake NASA space suit purchased at a seasonal Halloween store. We're talking about Dan Burbank, a Tolland native, a former Coast Guard pilot who flew several missions in space both on the shuttle and in space stations.

Burbank would use a HAM radio to communicate with family members during missions and has been at the road race in a bear suit two years now, helping at the 2.5-mile mark along the racecourse.

The ham radio operators of the "BEARS" organization provide the radio communication system at the race. They advise the announcers about the race leaders and provide emergency communications in addition to the radios operated by town police fire and EMS.

"They are terrific volunteers and a real help to the MRR. We couldn’t stage the race without them," longtime race official Richard Dyer said. "Race committee leaders are assigned a BEARS shadow on race day so that we can all maintain contact wherever they are My BEAR John was at Veterans Row (Thursday)."

Burbank was at the 2.25 mile marker yesterday. He not only relayed leader information from that post, but was also involved with communications about a minor medical problem/injury experienced by a runner.

"I has no idea he was there," Dyer said. "Then I was recently handing out veterans pins and there he was."