Posted by Mark Silva at 1:25 pm CDT
Another eight American soldiers died in Iraq today, the military announced, raising the American military’s death toll to 101 in May and nearly 1,000 since the last Memorial Day.
In honor of Americans still unaccounted for in this war and in wars past, hundreds of thousands of people assembled outside the Pentagon today, on a hot, sunny and hazy Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend, for the launch of the 20th annual Rolling Thunder, a parade of motorcyle-mounted veterans of the Vietnam War and other conflicts that takes several hours to rumble out and circle the National Mall in Washington, passing the Vietnam Memorial, the White House and the Capitol.
Ray Smith, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, came from Chattanooga, Tenn., to make a statement about “the MIAs and the POWs that could still be out there, not just from Vietnam but all wars.” It’s a matter of “not abandoning our warriors, our fighting people. The military, our fighting branch, is what gives us our freedom,” said Smith, a maintenance man who donned his Rolling Thunder vest and rode to Washington to remind the powers that be that he and his comrades will not be ignored.
“It seems that all your little special interests groups… their issues get pushed to the front,” Smith said, “and the populace, what they want, gets pushed over… There’s a lot of people out here.”
They did not pass unnoticed. President Bush, returning from Camp David, made a low circle over the Pentagon lot in Marine One before arriving at the White House to greet the leaders of Rolling Thunder.
With the Pentagon as a backdrop, hundreds of thousands of people queued up in a hot lot this morning for the noon launch of the Rolling Thunder. This and all other photos by Mark Silva
(Also note: The Chicago Tribune offers profiles of the more than 3,800 members of the U.S. armed services who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan at chicagotribune.com/soldiers) They said that 250,000 turned out for this annual Rolling Thunder last year, and that, because of the anniversary this year, the crowd should be larger. There was no disputing the immensity of this assembly, which filled the north and spillover lots of the Pentagon this morning.
On any other day, any one of these bikers would pass for simply that, bikers. Today, they came to Washington for a cause. Hundreds of Americans who fought in Vietnam still are unaccounted for.
The Pentagon sits on the western shore of the Potomac River, in Arlington, Va., with a leafy stretch of the George Washington National Parkway and the granite monument of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial standing between it and the river. It was hot, hazy and breezy this morning as veterans on bikes sat silently, awaiting the noon ignition of thousands of Hogs.
Yes, there was a lot of leather here today in the parking lot of the Pentagon. There was also an Arctic Fox skin cap atop the head of one woman from Columbus, Ohio, the tail as long as the blonde hair of her man who had shot the fox in Alaska. They stopped to greet my dog, Bree, who seemed jealous of their furs.
But there was mostly leather and denim here at the congregation of Rolling Thunder.
The demonstration got underway promptly at noon, with the firing up of the first bikes to roll out of the parking lot. Gold Star mothers and Gold Star wives rode in the backs of Army trucks, one man rode inside a makeshift cage of bamboo that symbolized the way in which many prisoners of war were treated.
Artie Muller, founder of Rolling Thunder, welcomed his fellow veterans at the reflecting pool before the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, steps from the Vietnam War memorial. He and other leaders had met with the president at the White House, where the message was delivered. “We have to get our men and women back.,” said Muller, who was an Army sergeant. “We leave no men and women behind.”
One bike, with a belt of machine gun bullets adorning its handlebars, stalled at the start and needed a push-start from fellow veterans to join the launch.
The bikes headed out of the Pentagon toward Washington, with the Washington Monument visible here over the treetops of the George Washington National Parkway.
The more bikes that rolled, the louder the procession grew. And in the distance, on this hazy Sunday, they assumed the sound of thunder.
DC-bound: Rolling Thunder heading into the capital:
Brig. Gen. Michael Flowers of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and son of a Vietnam veteran, arrived for the 20th anniversary of “the Ride to the Wall,” the Vietnam monument. “You have been vigilant in your quest to make sure that these heroes are not forgotten,” Flowers said, noting that there are diamonds and crosses on that wall. The crosses indicate soldiers who haven’t been accounted for yet — 868.
And the president, who swept over the Pentagon parking lot in the white-topped Marine One helicopter at 12:30 pm EDT, landed on the South Lawn of the White House five minutes later to welcome the leaders.
Bush, returning from two nights at Camp David, returned to the White House at 12:35 p.m., with his national security adviser, Steve Hadley, in tow. Bush emerged 10 minutes later to await the arrival of eight motorcycles at the diplomatic entrance.
“Artie, how you doin’, Artie?” Bush said to Muller, founder and executive director of Rolling Thunder, arriving with his wife Elaine on his bike. “Good to see you agian.”
The president invited 13 riders into the Oval Office for handshaking and photographs.
“Artie, main man right here,” Bush said, as he headed to the office.
“Here’s the main man,” Muller said in return, “our president.”
