May 17, 2022
Yesterday afternoon we pulled into the host hotel, the Ontario Airport Hotel. I’m traveling with my brother-in-law, Mike who is an FNG which stands for (polite terms) “Fun New Guy”. Military lingo for first timers. After checking in and getting all the materials, we were getting lots of hugs with welcome back and “Welcome Home” to the FNG. Very warm and gracious greetings all around. It was great to see so many familiar faces and catch up on life’s events making it through the Covid years.
Mike’s impression of the warm greetings was great. He’s been to a lot of group meetings with other bikers, some big group rides like the Love Ride in Los Angeles, but never such warm greetings and hugs because he’s wearing an FNG button which is letting everyone know he’s a new guy. I also heard a comment from him that “this is over whelming, to try and take it all in”. The number of motorcycles parked around the hotel is impressive. Lots of different kinds of bike, mostly big cruisers. Of course, there are a lot of trikes and CamAm’s. Bike’s with trailers are among us too. The three wheelers and bikes with trailers are towards the end of the pack. One of the trailer guys jokingly referred to their group as “trailer trash”. Having a sense of humor and keeping in mind the mantra of “no attitudes” is an expected part of this community. This is an opportunity to heal and help others heal. Today’s warriors have a better acceptance and understanding to the PTSD that is contrived through the horrible experiences of war. That doesn’t reduce the impact at all, please understand that point but it’s at least talked about and there are some services available to vets that have gone through the “sand box” wars. They are usually lacking but some of them are trying. Back in the days of Nam, the home coming reception was different and not a good one. My personal experience had me in the USAF from ’72 to ’75 during the Viet Nam war but I stayed state side, working on ICBM Minute Man missiles so I was not “in country” but my two brothers were along with friends of mine including two high school class mates that didn’t come home. Often these warriors came home to be called baby killers because of some pictures or stories about individual cases where children were killed. That attitude was being portrayed to all the warriors coming home by some of the people that stayed here in the states protesting the “conflict”. It was a tough to have gone through those experiences and then come home to a reception of contempt. Many warriors stood up and volunteered to protect their country from communism, but the draft brought many of the warriors into the conflict involuntarily. So, instead of going to jail, it was accepted to go to Viet Nam and do what you had to. To then be treated so poorly after experiencing traumatic events left some big scars on top of the scars that were received overseas. This RFTW group has a mission to “Ride for Those That Can’t”. The healing is for everyone and most importantly, remembering those that have never been recovered and are still MIA’s or KIA’s. The families of those that “Can’t Ride” need healing also so we’re honored with many Gold Star and Blue Star family members riding with us. Those family sacrifices are traumatic also. I’m about to get off the soapbox here but it needs to be said that other wars like WWII, WWI, Korea had similar issues where they called it “Shell Shock” or “Battle Fatigue”. The horrors of war are always a difficult thing to process. It seems the human brain wasn’t designed to handle too many of these horrors but many warriors end up forced to deal with it and this organization is helping all in many ways.
R “Boots”
USAF ’72 – ’75
The RFTW Mission Statement:
Mission Statement
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.
Tomorrow morning we leave Ontario and head for Casa Grande, Arizona. 402 miles of time on the motorcycle with family and friends. What could be better? It’s MAY!!
“…the bonds of brotherhood remain stronger
than the space and time between us.”
-Billie “Bugs” Dunlap
