Southern Route June 2026 Newsletter

RFTW Southern Route Newsletter June 2026

Run For The Wall Mission

To promote healing among all veterans and their family and friends

Call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War & Missing in Action (POW/MIA)

Honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA)

Support our military people all over the world

Greetings Everyone! This will be a short newsletter this month.

I want to thank all my riders for a great Run this year! I know that riding in the pack can be tedious at times and through it all, we Continued The Mission!

It was a good feeling of watching all of the planning we did through the year being executed and having to modify the plan to ensure that we made it across our country as safely as possible.

My thanks to our leadership teams, without their help in the planning and in The Run, I would have not been able to accomplish our mission. Platoon Leaders, Assistant Platoon Leaders, and Tail Gunners all contributed time and energy in the planning of the Southern Route.

My Team Leaders started their planning in June of last year and continued the planning up until Kick Stands Up in Ontario. My friend, Carol Olmstead, planned everything Ontario. Without her dedication and hard work, the entire Run For The Wall experience would not have happened. Thank you, Carol!

We had relatively decent weather this year. I say that knowing we had the Tennessee Tidal Wave in 2017 and had 3” of hail outside of Odessa, I think it was in 2024. So, we survived what little crappy weather we encountered and came out on the other side a little damp. Oh! Almost forgot the deluge we had pulling into Lynchburg Harley! We got there just before the skies opened up and gave us a welcoming shower. Such are the joys of riding a motorcycle!

Jerry “F-Stop” Lanier gave us an outstanding photo of us all sitting at the Linc. Jerry said he took 36,000 photos on this year’s Southern and Sandbox routes. He has begun his editing process, which will whittle that number to around 20,000 edited photos. Thank you, my friend!

Thanks to the Platoon leadership throughout The Run. They were instrumental to getting everyone into Springfield, VA, safely. Stagers and Fuelers did an outstanding job getting us through the pumps as quickly as possible. Yes, there are times when they were confronted with challenging situations. They handled them on the spot and got everyone through as quickly and as safely as possible. Remember, patience is a virtue!

Let’s not forget all of the supporters who cared for us along our route and the State Coordinators who ensured we had food and lodging

Again, thank you, riders, for your support throughout this year’s Run! Without you being on the Run, it would have been just us colored hats, and that would be sad.