Vietnam Veterans and Their MEMORIAL DAY

Well, they say less people are traveling on this holiday weekend, but that doesn't seem to fit what we're seeing in Washington DC this weekend. Over 300,000 motorcyclists are expected to stage for a parade tomorrow morning for Rolling Thunder.

We participated in THE LONGEST RIDE HOME called Run For The Wall, starting in Los Angeles area on May 14th and arriving last night in Washington DC area. We all go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in a few minutes. The group picture could have as many as 800 people in it on the Lincoln Memorial Steps, then we all traverse the grassy area to THE WALL. More than 1/3 of the men and women in that walk have never participated in the RUN FOR THE WALL, and their emotional impact of the memorial will be monitored by all of us who have repeated the journey this year. I've posted a picture of the vehicle that got me across country. I broke out of the pack yesterday and rode the 150 miles by myself.

The Run http://www.rftw.org/ was so emotional for me this year, as exactly 40 years ago this week my hubby returned from basic training, and he took his first duty station for advanced training. We had our first anniversary a month later, we had our first son 9 months later, and my hubby left one day before Jim's birth. While he was overseas, Jim and I moved so many times I couldn't count. When the hubby returned from overseas we had another son. Our two sons cost us 27.50 total, one of the few advantages of Army kids. Jim was 2.50 .50/day for "rations" while in the hospital. Ken was a $25.00 deductible in a civilian hospital, the army paid for the rest.

After the military, we dropped out of society, bought a farm and started preparing for a counter culture...we had a lot of hurts, disappointments, anger, etc. We bought a volkswagon van, partied and surrounded ourselves with friends of like-mindedness, finding ourselves with many alternatives to current mindset. So open minded our brains were falling out, so to speak. The journey back to reality was a long process I'm still sorting out, if anyone is interested in discussing it. Anywho, today I plan to leave a piece of me at the WALL. More to follow.

This year on the RUN FOR THE WALL each of the 10 days we read "On This Day 40 Years Ago," we did research on Soldiers Missing in Action in 1968 and Prisoners of War from this month that year. We read one each day, and handed the card to a new participant to carry to the wall. 10 days,

10 of the more than 58,000 names on the wall were featured as we rode across.

TWO HAVE SACRIFICED:

The soldier: for my freedom,

God's Son, Jesus: for my eternal salvation.