Legion Members Support 20th Anniversary Of ‘Run for the Wall’
By J.C. Jones
Correspondent
A "Run for the Wall" event started in 1988 with about 400 riders who donned protective clothing and drove their motorcycles from the coast of California to the site of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D. C.
They continued to show the pride of displaying the American Flag as 600 riders stopped at the Brookshire’s Grocery in Terrell to refuel and to get a hug or a salute from a crowd that had assembled to assist the riders.
American Legion Auxiliary spokesperson Sam Armstrong said, "We had the support of our American Legion Post 517 as well as the support of the Dallas Love Field Post 453 and the financial assistance of Legion Post 17 of Greenville and Post 165 of Kaufman."
Armstrong also said that the post joined the assistance of multiple providers at the scene and offered over 800 sandwiches, thousands of bottles of water and sports drinks as well as fresh fruit snacks to the riders that will complete their journey on Memorial Day.
The riders rode from Weatherford to Terrell and will continue to Longview, and each mile of the trip seems to accumulate new riders that will soon grow to the thousands as the riders approach the Vietnam Memorial.
All of the riders seemed to be tired as they rolled into the support area except a dog named "General" that had been provided a set of custom made goggles by rider John Jones of Holden Mo.
The "General" accepted a snack or two but seemed to be very eager to get back on the road.
The Vietnam Memorial is dedicated to the 58,202 veterans that were killed in action and are listed in the Vietnam Memorial site, a slash of black marble in broken ground at the fabled memorial site.
The original riders rode Harley Davidson motorcycles and a plethora of other name-brand motorcycles, and wore the usual black leather protective clothing. Some of the original riders ranged from plumbers and carpenters to doctors and lawyers, but the common goal was to educate the public about the sacrifice of the American veterans of the Vietnam War.