THE RIDE TO THE WALL

On Saturday, May 24, 2008, seven members of Tar River Basin Chapter left Wilson, NC to join in on the Rolling Thunder ride to the Vietnam memorial wall in Washington, DC to pay our respects to the fallen heroes that gave their lives to protect the American way of life. When we arrived at the north parking lot at the Pentagon at 9:30 a.m., the only thing we could see were all thousands of motorcycles.  It was estimated that there were around seven hundred thousand motorcycles in all. This trip always gets a little emotional for some of us knowing that all gave some and some gave all.  There are fifty-eight thousand and forty names cut into this wall of honor.  Even so, don't forget there are thousands of men unaccounted for and they also need to be brought home with honor and have their names put on this wall of honor.  On the trip back, we stopped at the Marine Corp museum which was a nice surprise for me.  I had never been there and it brought back a lot of memories for me since I was in the marines during the Vietnam War about a hundred years ago and I want to thank Gary Woodring our road Captain, for asking if I would like to stop.  Thank you, Gary and everybody that went to the wall on Memorial Day, it was nice to share some of my memories with friends.

                                                             SEMPER-FI

President Tar River Basin Chapter

Jesse Watson