Veterans, families and visitors headed to the National Mall on Sunday to honor military members during the 38th annual Rolling to Remember, a demonstration ride demanding full accounting for America’s POWs and MIAs and to raise awareness of the mental health crisis stealing thousands of veterans’ lives each year.
“I’ve been coming here since 2016 to honor the brave men and women for sacrifice,” said retired U.S. Marine George Perkins.
“It’s been raining all weekend, and the good Lord has blessed us for this next hour that all these motorcycles from all over the country,” he said. “And also I get together, mothers, spouses, husbands, and a lot of folks don’t know how to talk to a Gold Star, and they just want a little interaction,” Perkins said, showing a tattoo on his arm bearing the message, “I do it for the cause, not the applause.”
Rolling to Remember is more than just a ride through the nation’s capital. For many, it’s an emotional journey that ends at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where thousands of names etched in black granite serve as a reminder of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
“I got drafted at 19, and I was discharged by 21,” Peter Mack said. “It was the luck of the cards; either you made it or didn’t make it in the infantry, as I was in the 9th Infantry Division.”
Mack said he has come every year for the last 15 years or so — “to come pay my respects for Memorial Day,” he said.
“We need to honor all the men and women that sacrifice so that we can have these freedoms and these luxuries, even just to have a Memorial Day and have a day off work,” Faith Torres said. “It’s so much more than that, and the price they paid is just something that we can never repay, so just doing little things like this just to honor them.”
Torres, who traveled from New Jersey, said her uncles served in Vietnam, “but that’s the only connection that I have. I’ve lived in other countries, and I love America. I love the freedoms that we have.”
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/EJbAkKi
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