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Patriot Guard Riders Forum
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| Display Name: |
Roadcaptain |
| Joined: |
6/10/2006 6:23:49 PM |
| Posts: |
18 View Posts By User |
| WebSite: |
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| Occupation: |
Patriot |
| Location: |
Angleton, Texas |
| Interests: |
Harley-Davidsons, Military History |
| Avatar: |
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| Bio: |
 My appreciation for the fallen serviceman began when I was a teenager during the Vietnam years. I watched the war being covered by the media like it was a football game. I watched as my playmates went off to war. I watched in horror as the returning Vets were disrespected on their home soil. It really struck home when one of the neighborhood kids came home in a flag draped coffin. By the time I reached 19 years of age, I was 1A and my selective service sequence number was 6 out of 366. It was not lost on me that the ONLY reason I did not end up in 'nam was due to the fact that my older friends from the neighborhood went before me.
Every member of my family who was Fathers age served in WWII. Some were present in Pearl Harbor on the "Day of Infamy" manning a 50 cal. on a US Naval warship in Pearl who were following the Nevada during her breakout attempt. All my life I have heard the stories from Pearl Harbor, Battle of the Coral Sea, Guadacanal, Leyte Gulf, Komandorskie Islands, Tinan, Guam, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Battle of the Bulge.
I saw Father suffer from a crippled back as a result of being blown out of his gun tub and falling 15 feet to the steel deck below. I saw the blood on his pillow each morning from his eardrums which bled for 20 years after the war. Though I never witnessed it, Mother told me Daddy cried himself to sleep may nights over what he saw aboard that warship as a Gunners Mate on a 5"/38.
These old timers are passing away now and each flag draped coffin saddens me and Taps brings me to tears almost every time I hear it.
My nephew flew F14's off the USS Roosevelt striking Middle Eastern targets during the first Gulf War. I personal friend of mine is currently on his 3rd tour of Iraq with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Another nephew served in the Infantry and is currently stateside. My brother is a 30 year veteran of the USMC and is currently Commander of an Arsenal stateside.
I have nothing but the greatest respect for a "Frontline Combat Veteran" and I have seen far too many flag draped coffins in my lifetime.
I joined Patriot Riders recently to honor a hometown boy whom I never met and was greatly impressed by the riders who turned out for a man none of them knew. I was also impressed by by some of the "Patches" I saw (I survived the Tet Offensive, Gulf War Veteran) also the turn out of the VFW, Military Moms, and others.
If there ever was a "Noble Cause" this is it.
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