By Lulu

This wasn’t my first ride from Daytona to D.C. for the Ride for Freedom and I hope to God it won’t be my last. I have been lucky enough to visit with the Vet’s three times and of all the motorcycle events across the U.S. that I have experienced, I tell anyone who will listen…it is the best! I had heard that this was to be the last due to the increased financial burden of the event, so I wanted to make sure T. J. had a chance to experience it. We rode with Reggie Lord who took me on my first ride up with Rolling Thunder Chapter 8 from Port Orange and his friend Gary Dellaneve. The trip up was uneventful although quite hot. The event itself was worth every sweltering mile spent on the highway. We attended the Gold Star Mother’s Walk of the Wall the first night. As the mothers who have lost a child walk the wall dressed in white, a torch they carry illuminates the names chiseled into the granite. A very touching and inspirational way to sear into our memory that each name is someone’s child.

I was worried this event may not have the interest after so many years, that the Vietnam Vet’s were getting too old to make the trip and maybe that was why it no longer was a necessity to have the ride anymore. My voice may not matter to those making the call to end this event, but I will tell you what I witnessed. Parents with their children on the ride. Vietnam Vets on the sidewalks in wheelchairs still attending although not on motorcycles. I saw young twenty and thirty-year-old men and women proudly wearing Rolling Thunder vests. The Run is led by Rolling Thunder Inc. National, NJ, followed by the Gold Star Mothers either on their own bikes or riding with Chapter members. What moved me the most was a seventy-year-old mother dressed in white who after leading the hundreds of thousands of bikes rushed to the sidewalk to watch the bikers who rode to honor those lost and still missing. It was 100 degrees hot! She was not young. I tried to tell her there was a tent with refreshments for her, but she said “No, I must watch this. My husband and I lost our son last year in the current conflict. My 70-year old husband, took a motorcycle class and bought a bike to be here in memory of our son.” And she stood there taking a video until she couldn’t stand any longer, then she sat on the curb and watched each bike…hours of bikes ride in 3 and 4 abreast. No one can tell me this isn’t important! No one can tell me the cost is too high.

They have never charged a dime to run on this ride as it is a Memorial Ride. I have heard rumors that Trump has offered to help keep this event alive. God bless him. Walt Sides 1st Sgt retired and founder of Rolling Thunder Washington, DC Inc. is also one of the original four that started the Run in 1988. Sides who also hosts Thunder Alley, the official vendor site for the event hinted that this may not be the last Run. The first Run was the idea of Ran Manzo a Corporal in the Marines, and brought together with the help of Sides, John Holland an Army Sergeant Major, and Ted Sempley Sergeant. They wanted to call attention to the POW/MIAs and started this event with that purpose. The first run in 1988 had 2500 riders. Over the years the event had grown to over 900,000 riders and spectators. The ride from the Pentagon to the Vietnam Wall is only six miles and with as many as four bikes riding abreast it takes about four and a half hours to complete. Bob Schmitt, one of the early organizers predicted “it will sound like Rolling Thunder coming across that bridge” little did he know the sound of the storm would be more than four hours long! Rolling Thunder was also the name of an intense American bombing campaign in 1965 in North Vietnam that resulted in many American pilots being taken as POWs. So, the history of this event…the healing this parade creates, the honor given to those who have served has been a huge gift that the original organizers, the volunteers and the people who have ridden or witnessed on the sidelines know well. I asked one of the Gold Star moms, “Isn’t it painful to be here”? Her answer was quick and crisp. “No, it helps with my pain I have felt since I answered that door and heard the news of my son’s death.”

So, may I say thank you to the sponsors, particularly Humana for sponsoring Thunder Alley, Bayer, GUM and Dr. Scholl for being there to give samples for the riders, to Walt, Ray, Ted and John and all who have helped them with their dream, and to each motorcycle that participated over the years to make that Thunder roll through the streets of D. C. to remind us of the great cost of freedom. And may the Thunder continue so that those who have not had the chance to witness this great tribute have a chance to make the ride.