This past Sunday, while riding in Rolling Thunder XXII, a group of us pulled to the side of Constitution Avenue to stop and shake hands with two vets in wheelchairs.
While I waited for my turn in line, a Vietnamese woman about my age came out of the crowd, handed me a flower, kissed me on the cheek and said "thank you" in both English and Vietnamese before disappearing back into the throng.
Her simple gesture touched all of us in that line.
The lump in my throat stayed with me through the rest of the ride and the tears streamed down my face for most of the ride back up Interstate 66 for the return to our hotel.
I returned to Rolling Thunder this year after an 11-year absence. It seemed much longer. When I wrote about that ride in 1998, I never expected to take more than a decade to return. But problems with my knees, hips and ankles kept me off bikes for longer than I wanted and I did not return to riding until last summer.
I wasn't sure what I would find when 14 of us from the Roanoke Valley chapter of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) left the Cracker Barrel in Troutville, Virginia, on Saturday morning for the five-hour ride to Washington. In 1998, they expected about 200,000 bikes. This year, more than a half million would show up.
By the time we rolled into Manassas to check into our hotel, the National Capital Region was teeming with motorcycles: Not just Harleys but Indians, Victory models, Honda Goldwings, BMWs and a lot of sport bikes.
While Vietnam-era vets trended towards Harleys,many of the vets of Iraq and Afghanistan rode in on Hondas, Suzukis, Yamahas and Kawasakis along with a few Bimotas and Ducatis.
Rolling Thunder is a big tent. The ride founded on a demand for accountability for missing in action and prisoners of war from Vietnam now includes many vets who weren't born when that long war finally ended.
Like Vietnam four decades ago, America today is divided over an unpopular war. Unlike Vietnam, we did not take sides in an existing civil war. In Iraq, we invaded a country that posed no immediate threat to us and created a civil war that will remain long after we leave, assuming that we eventually will.
And we still face a lingering war in Afghanistan where new President Barack Obama increases the American commitment and faces charges that the Afghan conflict will become his Vietnam.
Which makes me wonder: When a gray-haired rider takes part in Rolling Thunder 62 some 40 years from now, will an Iraqi or Afghan woman come out of the crowd, hand him a flower, kiss him on the cheek and say "thank you?"
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EileensHoot
A great and touching write Doug...thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! What a heart warming story. I have tears running down my face, too. Thanks for sharing, Doug!
colorcritic
Nice story. Just wonder how everyone knew that woman was Vietnamese?
I have Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian neighbors and I can't hardly tell the difference between them. They tried to tell me what to look for but like I found out when I took Mandarin, it's all Asian to me.
The older fellas need to explain to those younger pups just why they prefer hogs to metrics. I wouldn't trade my Sportster for 10 metric sport bikes.
It was a reasonable assumption from Mr. Thompson but the nationality of the woman really doesn't matter. She said "Thank You".
I too attended Rolling Thunder this year, my first time there. The ride in the parade was a huge mix of emotion - one second pure and powerful elation and the next second tears and an equally powerful lump in my throat. The excitement of the croud reaching out for "high fives", the signs saying "Thank You", the marine holding his salute for nearly 3-1/2 hours as the whole procession passed, and the deep commitment from everyone involved - I've never seen anything like it! I especially remember the elderly gentleman in the WWII-era Army uniform, in a wheelchair and oxygen canula, waving the Flag and mouthing the words "Thank You". No Sir, Thank You! This man is one of the giants whose shoulders we all stand upon - no matter when we served!
Rest assured Doug, there were, and still are, many at both ends of the spectrum given to the commitment that communism and despotism have no further reach.I walked among those seekers years ago and the road is still stretching far ahead of me as empathy for those who have never tasted liberty continues to tear me asunder.
Alas their intent (pols) had nothing to do with the freedom seeking Vietnamese or the sad refrain of the families that welcomed home their men draped in flags,
or those that they find so convenient to ignore,
that had no remains to mourn.
To echo one more time a question and a theme that is a pox on our foreign policy;
Do we get to win this time?
Someday if we ever find our compass, war and it's cost, versus the inevitable results will be measured, lest we heighten our ignorance further.
...POW/MIA...You are not forgotten!
"Unlike Vietnam, we did not take sides in an existing civil war."
Not quite true Doug. The U.S. was instrumental in creating the puppet government known as South Vietnam; and the U.S. was instrumental in escalating the conflict for year after bloody "frackin'" year.
Like Iraq, The U.S. had the power to kill the Vietnamese people, but we didn't have the power to control the Vietnamese people.
The primary difference is: in Vietnam we didn't wage war on their culture.
For the record I was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent a portion of 1965 and 1966 in Vietnam. No one in the anti-war movement ever spit on me -- however the local America Legion crew made it clear that I wasn't welcome in their pub because I had not served in a "real war."
Conflict between the north and south dates back to 1945 when Vietnam was split with the Chinese controlling the North and the Brits the South. France joined the fray in 1950 and the U.S. sent in troops and advisors to help the French. The civil war was raging when we got there.
Can't say I miss those Rolling Thunder\Whitehouse photos ops with George Bush and Artie Muller. The implicit message from the Bush Whitehouse was that Rolling Thunder and other Real Americans support Bush's Iraq policy.