The Thunder Rolls

Monday, May 31, 2010


The Thunder Rolls

Yesterday was the 23rd annual Rolling Thunder Memorial Day ride into the Capitol.

Motorcycle riders, mostly veterans, ride to the National Mall and the various war memorials to honor their fallen brothers in arms; most especially those still unaccounted for Prisoners of War and Missing In Action. The majority of these are from the Viet Nam War era. Rolling Thunder is a demonstration to demand a full accounting.

My family has a tradition every Memorial Day Sunday, of watching a pre-staging of this event. We discovered the pre-staging on our way home from the early service at the Quantico Chapel one year. The staging begins at East Coast Harley at around 7 AM. It takes about two hours for all of the hundreds of motorcycles to assemble at the bottom of the hill in the village of Dumfries.

Motorcycles of all different shapes and sizes, makes and models begin to arrive around 6 AM. Choppers, Hogs, Motortrikes, Bikes with sidecars, crotch rockets, some with passengers, some without, all line up and form a parade through the town of Dumfries, heading northbound on Route 1.

Meanwhile, near the top of the hill, spectators, from parents with infants and small children to aging senior citizen veterans gather on both sides of the four lane Route 1 in anticipation of the parade. They come dressed in patriotic attire, carrying signs that say "Thank you for your service to our country," waving flags at passersby.

Finally, the cavalcade of motorcycles gets underway aorund 9 AM. They are led by the Prince William County Police on their motorcycles, followed by the Virginia State Police, sirens blaring. The County police stop traffic along the parade route and escort the motorcycles to the HOV ramp onto I95. The Virginia State Police escort them all the way to the grand staging at the Pentagon. This year, organizers expected about 400,000 motorcycles.

Some three thousand motorcycles passed under an arch formed by the local fire department's ladder trucks at the base of the hill as they exited Dumfries to begin their treck. Rolling Thunder is an apt description as hundreds of motorcycles crest the hill. American flags and POW/MIA flags fly unfurled from the backs of many of the cycles. Often, the riders take pictures of the crowd as they ride past; as others wave to the onlookers. There is a conversation between crowd and the riders in those waves and the fleeting eye contact that accompany warm smiles. It says "thank you for making a difference."

As a veteran myself, married to a now retired career Special Forces soldier, it would be an honor to ride alongside them. One of these days, we'll get our Harley and we will.

Today I honor the fallen:

Mark P.

Ted

Big Pat

Mark L

Joey

Harve

Mitch

Karush

There are more whose names I have forgotten. Thanks you guys, for your service. It has not been forgotten.

Taps.

Posted by klasko at 10:09 AM

1 comments:

V.R. Leavitt said...

Great post, Karen. I've seen the exact staging place you're talking about and it's definitely a sight to behold.
June 1, 2010 2:10 PM