Thanks For Coming
Hope You Had a Great Time
The 12th Anniversary Ride of the Patriots® to
Rolling Thunder® XXIII was blessed with great people
and great weather. Over 4000 riders joined the Ride of the Patriots this year to remember
and honor those in uniform who serve bravely to protect our nation and our liberty. We
then went on to join with the 300,000+ Rolling Thunder riders who came to
Washington, D.C. to honor our veterans and remember those lost or missing soldiers from
our nation’s conflicts. We were especially proud to honor our nations heroes in the way that only we can.
These heroes represent all of their fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, fire fighters and law enforcement officer
and made the event especially memorable for all of us. Riders came from all over the United
States and Canada to participate in the 2010 Ride of the Patriots and, most
importantly to pay tribute and remember. It was a pleasure to have you with us.
The ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan underscore the debt of
gratitude we owe those men and women in uniform who serve everyday and put their lives
and limbs at risk to protect and help in times of crisis. Those who have lost life and
limb are especially remembered. Less publicized but no less appreciated is the sacrifice and service of
our uniformed first responders.
Your participation in the Ride of the Patriots as well
as Rolling Thunder made a statement to the community, our nation and the world that
WE WILL NEVER FORGET those who have served, those missing and those who have
fallen.
General Dick Myers Delivers Keynote Address
The Ride of the Patriots event would not happen if it were not for Rolling Thunder.
They continue to fight for our servicemen and women on many issues. Their advocacy for
all veterans is very worthy of our support. They invite and we encourage your continued
support of Rolling Thunder. Our hope is that the Ride of the Patriots has and will
continue to provide our community an opportunity to participate and honor our veterans and first responders.
With the help of our local Police Motor Squads, the event also provides an organized
staging area and safe trip to the Pentagon and Rolling Thunder. The Ride of the Patriots
has become the signature event for our Chapter and Patriot Harley-Davidson and we hope it
will continue to serve our veterans and the community for many years to come.
Bikes staging for the ride. The line extends over a mile down Fairfax Boulevard
The City of Fairfax continues to work cooperatively with us to bring a safer,
more enjoyable and more meaningful event to the community. We are grateful for the
enthusiastic participation of Mayor Rob Lederer and members of the
City Council, Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulova, Delegate
David Bulova, VA State Senator Chap Peterson, U.S. Congressman Gerry Connolly, Bob Sussan, Commander, American
Legion Post 177, Bob De Haven, Mo Smith and our keynote
speaker General Dick Myers, USAF Retired. The Armed Forces
Color Guard from the US Army Military District of Washington was front and center
this year followed by our flag bike ridden by Joe Pounder.
The Northern Virginia Firefighters Emerald Society Pipe Band and the Fairfax High School Band accompanied by
Eric Medina and Julie Fanning added terrific
musical tributes. The City of Fairfax and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Vehicles represented the many
heroes of 9/11 and were lead by the Fairfax City Firefighters Honor Guard.
Fairfax City Police, Fairfax County Police, Sheriff, and Arlington County Motor Squads contributed immeasurably
to the safety and enjoyment of everyone.
A very special thanks to the Fairfax High School Dance Team for their support and the
Northern Virginia Mustang Club for providing parade vehicles. Gary Smith
honored us again this year by carrying our keynote speaker in his Korean War vintage
US Army jeep. The ceremonies were ended by TAPS played by Kaleb Masters and Janet Christensen.
We thank all of them very much. This event does not happen without their significant
investment of time and effort. We owe our thanks to over 150+ of our Chapter members
who served on the Steering Committee and Teams. Many other members also jumped in to add
their help on Sunday morning to fill a gap or to help someone. Many thanks also to the
staff at Patriot Harley-Davidson who helped in so many ways. Great job.
12th Anniversary (2010) Commemorative Coin
Local businesses also lent us a hand including Farrish Jeep of Fairfax, Captain Pell’s,
the Uptown Restaurant, and JMG Catering. Please remember and thank and support the
organizations and businesses that supported us.
Again we learned the important lesson this year was that we are not in total control of our
destination parking area at the Pentagon. There are several parking lots at the Pentagon
and large groups like ours are directed by Rolling Thunder and the Pentagon Security
Force at the time of arrival in the interest of safety and security. This year we were directed to
different parking area - South Parking. We were fortunate this year to begin departure at about 2:15 - about the same
time as last year even though we were in North Parking last year. As Rolling Thunder grows
and changes continue in parking lot configuration, our staging location will be
determined by others and our police escort will be guided accordingly. Our departure
time from Patriot H-D also is a factor and we will be attentive to that parameter in
the future. Our primary objective is to provide a safe and organized ride to the
Pentagon to join Rolling Thunder.
We are now ready to start the planning for the 13th Annual Ride of the Patriots in
2011. We have a whole list of “lessons learned” and will use them to improve on this
year’s event. Thanks again for coming.
See YOU next year at Ride of the Patriots 2011
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