Central Route 2020 “VIRTUAL” Sitrep Day 11 Arlington/Washington D.C.

Central Route 2020 “VIRTUAL” Sitrep Day 11 Arlington/Washington D.C.

May 23, 2020 – In Washington DC

Our mission is still not complete.  The Saturday after we arrive in DC is just as busy as any day on the Run. 

Since only FNGs can ride into Arlington Cemetery, they will stage at the hotel to ride to the Tomb of the Unknow Soldier for the laying of the RFTW wreath.  If you have never seen this, please make sure you get there if you are in DC.  RFTW will have 4 people represent the Run.  What an honor.

 The 2019 RFTW team is given instruction for laying of the wreath.

                                 This is the Changing of the Guards. 

Soldiers placed nearly a quarter-million U.S. flags at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday as part of a Memorial Day tradition. The event is known as “Flags In.” More than 230,000 marble headstones line the landscape of the cemetery across 624 acres.

There are thousands of bikes all over the grass fields.  This is only one parking lot.

There are thousands of bikes all over the grass fields.  This is only one parking lot.

OH MY!!!!!    Always a picture of the RFTW participants at the Lincoln Memorial.

Once the pic is complete, the RFTW riders head for the Vietnam Wall.  You see many members tracing names of family and friends.          

If you remember, there were lots of bios read in the morning meetings and people carried them across the country.  Names were found on the wall and the bios are left. 

Here you see many of them placed under their name.

The RFTW plaque id placed at the Apex of the Wall.

MISSION COMPLETE !!!!

Thanks for reading these reports. Let’s keep our thought and prayers for all those affected by the Covid 19 virus and their families.

We will get thru this and come out strong next year.  I hope all works out and I can report live next year.  I leave you with the below. 

POW / MIA Poem

We need to remember them every day.
They went to fight in a place so far away,
They gave their all when their country sent out a call
Not ever knowing that their name would end up on the wall,
No matter how we honor them no matter what we do
We should always remember that they paid the highest price
For the red, white and blue.
So when you look up at the flag flying in the wind on a clear blue day
Remember it’s there because of the POW and MIA

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
General George Patton

On the Run, we said the Pledge every day.  I see this flag and took lots of pictures last year. Every time I see it waving in the air, it is telling me I am free.  And that right is protected by our men and women.  Let’s continue to try and bring them all home.

God bless the USA.