Patriot Guard Rider by longthought on Blogster

Well I found something new to occupy some of my free time and occupy it it did. I was riding for 12 hours today on my Harley. My butt is sore to say the least. But I feel great. I had checked into the "Patriot Guard Riders" a couple of weeks ago and they invited me on a "run". I left the house about 4:00 am and got home about 5:00 pm. It was so empowering, I can't put it into words.
The Patriot Guard came into being as a bunch of Motorcyclists who when asked to show up at certain funerals for our fallen troops who have died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They started out by drowning out the cat calls from a certain groups of religious zealots who with no class who would show up at some funerals and vocifeously protest to the bereived families. Well the motorcycles has a way of drowning out their protests. Now the Patriot Gurds Riders are sometimes asked to come and parade with the families to the cemeteries and perform "colors" duty and such. Today was such an occasion. I felt deeply honored to be a part of that. There were about 40 bikers in attendance and after the ceremony the local American Legion Hall opened up its doors to us and feed us fried chicken and all the trimmings before we headed home.
The services were for a USMC Corporal Aguilar who was KIA while serving in Iraq. There must have been over 100 people at the funeral and the whole town showed up for the procession.
It's ironic that in talking with a lot of the other guys there political views are very similar to mine--- i.e. anti-war--Bush--etc. Yet we all conducted ourselves in a semi-military manner with full honors being bestowed to Corporal Aguilar and his family. I'll defintely do this again soon. After I recover from this trip.

16 comments on Patriot Guard Rider

retiredthoughts said 2 years ago
what a wonderful thing to participate in. Good for you and all the others.
Strider333 said 2 years ago
[THUMBUP][THUMBUP]
grumpy said 2 years ago
Linda had a run in with that "religious group" as a part of her VA job. She was attending a young vets funeral that they tried to disrupt. Good work from one old vet to another. I don't have any use for these people.
snacks said 2 years ago
read accounts from another blogster/vet/anti-Iraq war/Harley rider that attended some of these events.

I'm glad that there are guys like you out there, supporting in a way no other community could. Bottom line, those moments are about the soldiers, its no time for politics.
Percivel said 2 years ago
Good on you! I am glad that there are still people who have "soul."
ChihulahuaLover said 2 years ago
Good for you and God bless you Jimmy. I have seen this on 60 minutes or something like that and it just blew me away at what that group is going around doing to our fallen troops and their grieving families. It is just not right. I was sooooo thankful and pleased to see the Patriot Guard group.[THUMBUP][HEART][SMILE]

Jenn[SMILE]
WriteGuy said 2 years ago
Have you gotten your "Iron Butt" badge yet? Thanks for the service you are doing.[THUMBUP]
longthought said 2 years ago
No, butt it's on my list one of these days. How about you?[COOL]
WriteGuy said 2 years ago
I like mine just the way it is, thank you![SMILE]
vitriolaholic said 2 years ago
Keep up the good work, Jimmy. I know what group it is that's protesting these funerals; I won't mention their name so as to divert any attention from the topic of this post. But yes, funerals for all people (military included) ought to be free from politicizing. People are grieving, for Pete's sake!
docrock said 2 years ago
THANKS for your contributions. We feel the same way about both.
MentalHealthRN said 2 years ago
A man walks into a bar with a little salamander-looking creature in his hand. The barman looks at the creature and asks the man what he calls it.

"Tiny" replies the man.

"Why's that?" asks the bartender.

"Because he's my newt!"
Ancient1 said 2 years ago
I love groaners....
Ancient1 said 2 years ago
Okay slacker.... what have you done for us lately?
Saito56 said 2 years ago
I sold my Harley over 14 years ago, but wish I had it now to join you. I wrote about the Patriot Guard a while back on my blog, they are a great group, and I back them 100 percent. Like hard work, when you do something worthwhile, you get a feeling worth the effort.
musicinme said 1 years ago
What a wonderful group to be involved in!![THUMBUP][THUMBUP] My Pastor belongs to the Patriot Guard also. He said it is an awesome experience each time he goes. God Bless you!!!