“EVERY DAY IS MAY”
“There isn’t a single ‘season’ to be a Patriot. Paying honor to our Veterans, showing respect for our Active Duty Personnel, and remembering our nations Fallen should be at the forefront of our daily activities. It should be such a part of our character that we don’t even realize that we are doing it.” Hoofer
In February 2024, I took a trip to Alaska. As I approached the TSA security screening area, I was told to take off my shoes, belt, empty my pockets, and step into the scanner. The Agent looked at me and said “You need to take off that bracelet.” Since it was early and there wasn’t anyone waiting behind me, I took the opportunity to tell them that I was wearing a POW-MIA bracelet, and I preferred NOT to take it off. Before they could object, I told them the significance of the bracelet, how it was both a physical reminder of a lost Soldier as well as a psychological remembrance. I told how I was allowed to wear that bracelet even while undergoing a minor surgery just a few months before, and that IF I had to take it off, it would be the VERY first thing that I put back on, even before I left the screening area. The agent quietly said “It’s okay.”, waved me through, and gave me a small but sad smile.
April found me sitting in a Chapel in Arlington National Cemetery. After a short service, I walked with 200 other mourners to the final resting place of an American Hero, Col Bernard L Talley, Jr.. “Bunny” as his friends called him, had spent six and a half years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton Prisoner of War camp during the Vietnam War. He endured incredible hardships during his captivity, but always held his head high and kept his spirits strong. He came home with “Strength and Honor.” I was privileged to get to know Bunny and his Family during the final years of his life, and through them learned a new level of Patriotism.
A few months ago, several RFTW Riders gathered together in Omaha, Nebraska to visit the DPAA Laboratory on Offut Air Force Base. We were there to visit the Men and Women that actively pursue answers for our MIA Families. It was an incredibly humbling and emotional day, for all that attended. We were able to get a better understanding for just what these Heroes do on a daily basis, including the physical AND emotional hardships that they endure. We were able to let them know how much they were and are appreciated, and how valuable their services are, not just to the MIA Families, but to us as RFTW Riders, and to our Nation as a whole. For more than four hours, the Riders and Technicians laughed together, cried together, and strengthened each other. No one that was there will ever be able to forget that momentous day.
After we parted from our new-found Heroes, we sat around discussing the events of the day. One of the key topics of conversation centered around the fact that THIS was precisely the type of event that we profess to support with Run For The Wall. Meetings such as this are critical to keeping our Mission in the forefront of the American public, and we need to do this all of the time, not just during our annual motorcycle trip. Several of us stated, almost simultaneously, that “Every Day (should be) May” and we quickly adopted this new phrase.
So what does this mean? Well, the Run For The Wall mission statement clearly says “To promote healing among ALL veterans and their families and friends, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (POW/MIA), to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars, and to support our military personnel all over the world.” NOWHERE does it state that this should take place ONLY during the annual event!
The people that attended the DPAA “Off-Season Outreach Mission” try to keep the spirit of the Run alive every day of the year, as do so many other RFTW Riders. This is good and admirable. But during our talks that day, we realized that more emphasis was being put on the activities in the month of May, and that the rest of the year was just a prelude to our Run.
Why is that?
Why do we (collectively) wait until May to tell the world what we want to accomplish? Why aren’t we actively promoting our Mission with as much enthusiasm the rest of the year? How can we keep this momentum going? HOW do we keep our Mission alive when NOT on the Run?
Well, it’s actually very easy. Try some of these ideas:
Join a riding group, such as the America Legion Riders, AMVETS, CVMA, or CMA. Wear your RFTW Vest and explain who and what we are. These organizations will understand.
Go to your HOG Chapter, and do the same thing! Don’t wait for someone to ask about your patches: just go tell them! Wear that vest with pride and make them listen!
Go visit a VA Hospital! There are people there that both want AND need to see someone. Listen to their stories. Tell them some of your own. Let them know that we appreciate what they did for our country and our freedoms.
Talk to your church group, your book club, or any group of interested and active citizens. Tell them about both RFTW and what it has meant to you personally.
Go talk to that “old guy” wearing a faded military cap. Just say Thank You, and then listen to him!
Join the Patriot Guard Riders. You do NOT need to be on a motorcycle. Just show up, pay respect, and stand in that flag line.
Wear a POW-MIA bracelet. Never take it off, and show it to everybody!
Do something for yourself and join the “Tour Of Honor.” This is a self-paced motorcycle “rally” that will take you to as many memorial sites as you can ever want, all over the nation. Each State chooses seven new sites each year, as well as having hundreds of “optional” sites to visit. You will see a true cross-section of America as you travel, and will get a renewed sense of patriotism as you see some of these small towns and the way they are honoring our Veterans. (And you will get a really nice “finishers pin” and certificate at the end of the year.)
Call the people that you have ridden with during the Run, just to see how they are doing. Do a monthly “Buddy Check” to make sure that they are alright, and to assure them that YOU are alright. Use those connections and friendships that you have developed within your Platoon!
Stand up, no matter where you are, when you hear our National Anthem!
Do everything that we do DURING the Run, but do it every day! It isn’t hard! Remember how by Day Four or Five, you just “expect” to do all of these things, without even having to think about doing them? The same thing will continue throughout the rest of the year, if you just don’t stop doing them once our “mission is completed” at the Wall.
Keep the mission alive in your heart, at all times. Honor, Respect, and Remembrance need to be a part of our daily routine.
On that special day in October, sitting around a table with that small band of Patriots, each of us trying to understand and compartmentalize the range of emotions we had just experienced, we decided that we don’t like the phrase “Is it May yet?”
Our reasoning was simple: “EVERY DAY IS MAY!”
Jim “Hoofer” McCrain
Photographer and SITREP Author
Midway Route
John “Turkey” Staub
