If you read this please comment

I need to know what you would like to hear about in relation to the Run For The Wall.
I usually talk about numbers, and people that I meet along the way, but would like to hear from you. Is there any thing you would like to hear about. Comment, I will post the comment, and will add the information that you request into the Blog. The Blog is not dedicated to the Run,. but once again the writer is.

Bounce

Thanks in advance

May already

It is May already, and I have seen so many bikes out there, hoping all of them are practicing up for the Run, but know for sure yesterday I saw four folks packed and riding in formation with the last guy on the right side waving a 3X5 flag from the back of his bike. I will be home on the 9th of May, will find Clyde, and pack him up and head west. Still not sure of the route I am taking, or if I am riding alone or with others to Colorado. Also not sure what day I am leaving. But I am going. Thanks to a lot of help from friends, and the Company I drive for.


OK enough for now. Will be posting packup pictures, and run to the Run pictures too.

Bounce

Breitbart.tv » Patriot Guard Riders Drown Out Westboro Baptist Church Protesters

Breitbart.tv » Patriot Guard Riders Drown Out Westboro Baptist Church Protesters



The riders in this video are true patriots. They do not protest against the protestors, they simply attend funerals at the request of the family. But I have never heard a protestor that could shout over the sound of a few Harley's with open pipes.

Bounce

This is what it means to be part of the RFTW Family

This video is of a delivery of a bike that was shipped by a participant of Run For The Wall.
His son had asked the shop to check the carb out for him. When the shop got the bike and heard that the owner was a Vet who had been fighting cancer for fifteen years they decided to do something great. They completely rebuilt the bike and custom painted things that the owner had magnetically stuck to his tank. This is awesome, and it is one of the reasons this writer is dedicated to Run For The Wall.

No one asked these folks to do this, they just thought it was the right thing to do. America is really a beautiful place if you look

Bounce

Then there are bikes that should not be on the road

May is getting closer, and my friends are chomping at the bit to get going on our mission

Even though some of them are still getting snowed on a lot of bikes are already packed. Clyde is ready to go, I just have to go find him, then pack everything into him and fill him up and roll. A word to the wise to any and all, but especially FNG's, when packing make sure you are going to use what you pack. Other than clothes I do not bring anything that I am not going to use every day. I do keep a can of fix a flat on Clyde that I hope I never need, but that and a small tool kit are the only two things I pack that I do not use every day. Less is better when packing on a bike. My first year, way back in 2005 I had a full size military duffel that was packed to the gills. You see I read the packing list and packed pretty much every thing suggested. When my wife and Dad showed up with my pickup truck I loaded that big old bag, It was like having a passenger, into the truck. I learned my lesson, and have been passing it along every chance I get. If you are not going to use something everyday, don't take it.
Ride safe and stay visible, there is safety in numbers, but most of us will be doing at least 1000 miles alone until we meet up with various west bound groups. Take care, and for my trucking friends please please remember these folks need to be watched over, a lot of them, especially me have not ridden since last year, so if they make a mistake, forgive them and take care of them.

For the FNG's welcome to the family, this ride will change your life. To the fence sitters, what are you waiting for, get it done.

Bounce

Was theCold War for real

There is a movement, and a pretty serious one at that, to make up a ribbon for those of us that served during the cold war. There were a lot of shooting matches, and out right battles during the cold war. We lost a lot of troops during that time. It lasted from just after WWII until the early 90's. There is a ribbon designed for it, and a few Congressmen and Senators that have started a bill.

I served during the Cold War. It was a time of training, and getting ready for a real shooting war. Many of my friends were hurt, and I even lost a few during this time. One of the people that I have dedicated this years run too died in a chopper crash in Sturgis South Dakota during the Cold War. His fire team was in support of a Missile movement at F.E. Warren AFB, when the chopper went down. He actually tried to save his fire team, and threw one of his fire team members from the chopper as it was going down. That young lady survived the crash with some pretty bad injuries, but my friend is credited with saving her life.

That is just one of many stories of people that gave their all for the safety and security of the country.
I lost another friend at Langley AFB when the vehicle he was in rolled over. He saved two people's lives and was killed when the hatch he had been using to save folks closed on him.

So my question is "Was the Cold War for real?" Or did these folks that gave their all die for nothing?

I know it was real, and a few of my friends think that groups like the VFW should welcome our generation into their ranks. I just recently found that because of Desert Storm, and Operation Provide Comfort (also know as Northern Watch) I am eligible to join the VFW, in fact the military even considers me a combat veteran, even though I do not.
So let me know what you think

Bounce

Update on clicks for my donation to the Wounded Warrior Project: We are now over $17.00 This is quite a jump seeing as how we were at $3.03 for over a year. Thanks and keep on clicking those ads. Please feel free to comment with suggestions for me to ad to this blog, and ideas for companies that I should put up as advertisers. Right now I am letting google pick the ads, but I can put anything I want on here.

Posted originally on rftw.org discussion forum...stolen and posted here

I have just copied and pasted a post from the rftw.org general discussion forum. Earlier I posted Toothless's tribute to these folks that died so long ago defending our freedom. I shamelessly copy the following and post it here because people should know, and they do not.
Bounce

http://www.seabee-rvn.com/

By Grygoose from rftw:
I am doing a write up on these six boys/men and will be posting it at http://www.seabee-rvn.com/ on the anniversary of that attack, 3/31. This was the most tragic event in the Seabee's RVN history. Not only were there the 6 Bee's that were killed that night/morning but also 2 Marines coming in for a medevac.




Six sailors and two Marines died in the incident at Phu Loc:
Det Echo, NMCB-9, 3/311/68:

BUL3 George R. De Shurley, Roswell, NM;
BUL3 Allan L. Mair, Park City, UT;
BUL3 John F. Peek, Pontiac, MI;
CN James F. Galati, Philadelphia, PA;
CN Mark E. Hodel, Lodi, CA; and
CN James R. Retzloff, Redding, CA.

UH-34D 148792 aircrew, HMM-362, MAG-36:
Sgt Daniel Pesimer, Salt Rock, WV and
Cpl Kenneth R. Yantis, Philadelphia, PA

It would be good to see your story on the post and if you haven't been to the site I think you'll have a nice surprise. Were trying to get a history of the RVN Seabee's because all the paper work, daily reports and logs never made it back. So now it's up to the Bee's that are still alive to leave the history of our past from there. If you have any pictures from your stay there with 9 and the Team you were on it would be great.

There was another incident on 1/14/68 with a CN Hodges, he was on a 16 man security detail on "Project Beaver" a helicopter repair facility project at Red Beach, DaNang. He was killed when a grenade was thrown into there bunker, he grabbed it and as he was trying to get it out when it exploded. His action directed the blast away from a mate in the bunker and saved his life.
I was wondering if you knew anyone who was on that Security Detail, or about that incident?
Great to find your post, hope to hear from you.
MCB 10 "C" Co. 69-71 BU3

In addition I am including the following information cause some of you who read this do not go to the rftw.org forum pages, and that is OK too. But here is a post from there by Shoreparty (My Brother the Computer Super Genius I can say that cause he just gave me a quick tip that got my Mozilla working again)and I am reposting it here:



Quote shoreparty Quote:

We have 11 Pages of tributes this year Thank you all. We Ride for those who can’t! So if you are running this year and you have a friend, family member of just know someone who served and or is serving and you want to ride for them or carry their memory with you and share their story, I would ask you that you send in a tribute to be posted on the website, It is an honor and privilege to make these posts and read the stories.

http://rftwcr.us/tributes.htm current tributes and tributes from , 2009 and 2010

A picture is nice but not necessary, just your that you riding for someone, there name and a brief bio if you have it. Then while your riding maybe someone will ask you about Paul, Jim, or your son or cousin, and you can share their story and heal also. Their story your story are the tools we all use to heal ourselves and each other. My first run each morning they read a tribute to a MIA from back in the day, we all knew except for the grace of GOD it could have been us. So if you have a tribute to send please do so. Thank you for reading this.

Send tributes to:

Shorepaety@computerguyllc.com or to crwebadmin@rftwcr.us

Shoreparty and Sage Owl

OK now I have to put my sunglasses on Thanks Shoreparty that tribute page thing is great!!!!
Bounce

Krazy Karl won't be with me this year

Well in about thirty five days I head to California. I wanted to meet Karl Haartz out there, he and I have a job that we sort of created on the run. One of the fuel crew leaders put it quite well (although I do not think he meant this in a nice way, but he was right) Karl and I make nice with the big rigs that the run encounters.

Our standard script is quite simple:" Thanks driver for staying in the center of your lane, and for being patient with us. This is not a rally, it is not a poker run, it is not Kyle Petty's Chick Filet charity ride. This is a POW MIA awareness mission. You do not have to like it you just have to do it."
Karl always adds "God Bless our troops and the Great American Trucker, If this country looses either, we are lost."

So for those of you who are following this to get information about loved ones on the run, they are being watched over, and the trucks love us. Or at least most of them do, and for the one percent that don't the other 99% tend to shut them up pretty fast. I will be looking for some one to take Karl's place, but that person will have big shoes to fill. I sure hope Trike is there, he has been the third member of Karl and My team for at least four years.
This team was not official until 2007, but I did it alone in 2005, and Karl helped me out in 2006. We became official when I notified Tanker of an Oversize rig that was partially blocking the right lane a few miles ahead of us, and in 2007 a truck that had passed us hit a deer that was laying in the center of the left lane. Sheepdog became a true believer when I notified him and he got the pack into the right lane. When Karl went by the deer who had only been sleeping jumped up and ran into the median. That could have been interesting with 500 bikes in the left lane.

I cannot wait till May

SSgt Barry Sadler, Ballad of the green beret

Less than thirty days till the start of Run For The Wall 2011. One way to get ready for a mission of this magnitude is to remember those who did not come home.
Freedom is not Free, never forget, and SUPPORT our troops all the time no matter what.