Today, Wednesday,2-23-2011, the Disabled American Veterans. (D.A.V) Chapter 41 hosted a "Greatest Generation Celebration" for those in the Wichita Falls Texas area, at the Red Door Senior Citizens Center at 9th & Bluff, here in Wichita Falls Texas. The D.A.V. invited the PGR to attend this event. Scroll down and join us, the North Texas PGR, as we attend this special occasion and REMEMBER: IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICTURE BIGGER, JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE.
As I headed to the Red Door Senior Citizens Center, I fell in behind this B.A.C.A. member.
We arrived at the parking lot of the Center and noticed the static flag line had been set up. The PGR Ride Captains for this Mission were: Ted, Tex and Jimmy.
The B,A,C,A, (BIKERS AGAINST CHILD ABUSE) member I had followed to the Center turned out to be my friend, Smokey. He had been patched into B.A.C.A. and here is a picture of his back patch.. I knew it had been a long time in coming and I congratulated him on receiving his patch. For more on B.A.C.A., see this link:
http://www.bacaworld.org/.
And here is Smokey. He has been off the bike for awhile due to a knee surgery. I've had my left knee operated on and I can identify with him on the pain and discomfort he's been having and is going thru.
The members already here were talking to the Sergeant Major in front of the Center. PGR members from left to right are: Ted, Jimmy, Jody, Tex and Kirby.
Our fellow PGR member and a member of the D.A.V., Paul, was there as a D.A.V. member. Looking good Paul!!
This is Ted, one of the North Texas PGR Ride Captain's for today's Mission.
Today's attending PGR members: left to right: Jody, Nubbin, Jimmy, Ted, Tex and that's Smokey in the middle.
Again, Jody, Nubbin, Jimmy, Ted, Tex and Smokey in the middle.
My good friend Kirby is taking pictures of the event also. Kirby is married to Jody.
This is Dick. I gave him one of my North Texas Biker cards and he said he would email me his email address so he could be notified of all the area rides. So, you should be seeing more pictures of him soon.
Another picture of Dick. In the background Jody, Nubbin Jimmy and Smokey continue talking.
This is Ted and Tex. Two of the greatest guys on the planet. They are both Vietnam vets and both have been a recipient of the Bronze Star for Valor while in Vietnam.
The Red Door Senior Citizens Center sign on the corner of 9th/Bluff Wichita Falls Texas
The static flag line in front of the church. The ROTC Honor Guard is heading toward me and that's Smokey by the flags and the other PGR members out in the street and they are: Kirby, Dick, Ted and Floyd
The static flag line in front of the Center. The flags are set up North & South on the West side of Bluff St.
Yet another look down the static flag line in front of the Center. PGR members talking in the street are Kirby, Jody, Nubbin and Dick
I tried to get a picture of Smokey but a gust of wind got Old Glory to waving and it covered him right up,
In between gusts, I get a shot of Smokey. According to Plan A, Smokey and Jody will fall in behind the ROTC members with swords. However, we all know about Plan A's, plus the fact that the D.A.V. were trying to run the Celebration by the clock
Ted and Floyd talking. We were waiting to be summoned inside the Center where we would form up a flag line.
Nubbin and Ted talking. Nubbin had to leave due to prior commitments. It was good of him to ride in from Windthorst Texas to be here. I really like him and his wife Angela. They are good people.
Tex giving the briefing prior to us going inside the Center. That is Tim to Tex's left.
We walk over to the Support Truck to get the flags we will hold in the flag line inside. In the picture are: Jimmy, Jody and Smokey (in the middle)
We get inside and make two columns and wait. We were to wait for General Burke to arrive. General Burke is the base commander out at Sheppard Air Force Base, which is located on the North side of town.
The PGR line behind me. Closest to me is Dick, and that's Crazy Mike and Floyd on the other side.
The view out the window from where I was standing as we waited for General Burke to arrive.
General Burke arrives. He is a Brigadier General as he has one star on his shoulder. For those who do not know: a 2 star General is a Major General, a three star General is a Lieutenant General and a four star General is a General.
me and the Mayor of Wichita Falls, Mayor Glen Barham. In another time & place, he was my boss for quite a while. He was a good man to work for. If you were right and catching hell from someone else on a case you were working, he would jump right in and support you all the way and do the same for the others under his supervision. And by the same token, if you were wrong about something he would give you hell for it. I know, I've been there and done that.
General Burke greeting members of the Greatest Generation. There were 28 Honorees there today.
When the call for lunch was put out and the attendees started forward to get in the food line, we left and went out the back door. Here is one of the PGR member's bike in the parking lot that I saw when we got back in front of the Center
Some of the other bikes there. The Red Can Am belongs to Ted W., not the Ted that is Ride Captain today
We get ready to retrieve the static line flags and bring them to the Support Vehicle. Around the Support Truck are: right to left: Kirby, Ted (on tail gate), Jimmy, Jody and Ted W.
This is the back patch of Tim. As you can see, Tim is a member of the Green Knights Chapter 54, that is located out at Sheppard AFB. for more info on Chapter 54 of the Green Knights, go to this link:
www.texasgreenknights.org/gk54 . They are a great Chapter and I know a lot of the members. They get things done..
Did I hear, "Oh Baby, Oh baby, OH! OH! OH!"?. Jody and Smokey joking around. Can't you just feel the love? LOL That's Crazy Mike looking on, over by the truck..
Some more of our bikes. Mine is on the end, backed in and parked against the yellow curb, with the helmet hanging off of the .throttle.
We were getting ready for the Ride Captains to give us the word to gather up the flags used in the static line. Each one of those flags is set over on a piece of rebar that has to also be taken up
Same view as Jimmy starts walking to where I am standing. I am standing at the bikes.
The static flag line in front of the Red Door Senior Citizen Center
Jimmy gets to my location and shows me the LED lights he put on his bike, when it snowed a couple of weeks ago. The three led lights are right under his headlight and running lights.
He turned them on for me and they looked great! Only trouble is, it's light outside and I couldn't get a good picture of them flashing. The light right under the headlight looks yellowish. The lights alternated colors.
He also put them under the trunk and they flashed alternating colors, like those on the front.
I think I got the right side flashing. I wish I could see them at night because they would be impressive. They looked great in daylight and I apologize by not getting a better picture of them for you, the viewers
Time to gather up the flags. When we got them we kept them unfurled until we got back to the truck and then we furled them and put them away
Ted putting some of the flags up in their cases in the bed of Tex's truck, which was used as our Support vehicle for today's mission.
The back of Dick's vest as he furls the flag. Dick is another Vietnam Vet
Dick furling the flag..
Ted is rearranging the bed of the pickup so we will have room for the flags. He also was picking up the flag bags for the branch flags
This is Crazy Mike. Mike lives next door to my son, Matt. Mike is another one of the guys I am proud to call friend.
The flags put up and secured, it was time to go. Here comes Jimmy to get his bike.This will conclude this post.
It was an honor to be part of today's Celebration. I had a good time. I was told by a gentleman a few weeks ago, that the WWII vets were dying at a rate of 1,122 a day. I don't know how many there are, but at that rate, a lot will be gone from next years Celebration.
If you are curious as to what the PGR (Patriot Guard Riders) is about and what we do, or, if you are interested in joining us in the PGR (IT'S FREE) , go to
http://www.patriotguard.org/ . After filing out the paperwork online, look me up or Ted or Tex or any of the PGR Ride Captain's (they wear the maroon ball caps or maroon bandana's) When you get with us, we will need your name, email address, phone number and we will then add you to our Patriot Guard Riders notification list. You do not need to be a Veteran or even own a motorcycle to be a PGR member.
Continue to pray for ALL of our troops both in and out of Harms Way, especially for Che Whitaker and Chris Drage both of whom are serving in the Afghanistan Theatre Of Operations. Also, Fred Hughes is home on leave and will be leaving shortly to rejoin his unit in Afghanistan
Scroll down for more rides, events and runs and don't forget to click on the
"OLDER POSTS' at the bottom of EACH page or directly underneath the last post on the page for more of the same.
Until next post, ya'll be careful out there, keep the rubber on the road, keep your head on a swivel and most importantly of all............................
RIDE SAFE!!!.......................................JOHN
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