News-Info-Alerts

Re: POW-MIA Run

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 26, 2002

"Norwood hosts POW/MIA Run
Veterans ride to speak for missing

By Susan Vela The Cincinnati Enquirer

        NORWOOD — More than 100 motorcyclists will rev their way through city streets Saturday, connected by their love for the road and their fellow war veterans.

        At least a third of the contingent will be members of Rolling Thunder's new Greater Cincinnati chapter, which helped organize Saturday's fourth annual POW/MIA Run.

Vietnam veteran Robert Hess, (right) president of Rolling Thunder's Cincinnati chapter, poses with members Danny Couch (center) and John Noyes.
(Brandi Stafford photo)
| ZOOM |         The bikers will converge in the Harley-Davidson of Cincinnati parking lot, 1799 Tennessee Ave.

        At 1 p.m., city police will escort them to Victory Memorial Park on Montgomery Road, site of the city's veterans memorial. American flags and POW/MIA banners will abound.

        “The reason we do this is basically for the vets,” said Cleves resident Robert Hess, a disabled Vietnam veteran and president of the new Rolling Thunder chapter.

        “Most of the people I know love riding for itself. We ride for those who can't speak for themselves — prisoners of war and the missing in action.”

        Rolling Thunder, which has Ohio chapters in Cleveland, Chillicothe and Youngstown, is a national organization that works to raise awareness about the soldiers who never returned to their families after the nation's wars ended. Every Memorial Day, about 500,000 ride to Washington to urge politicians to never let it happen again.

        Their name is taken from Operation Rolling Thunder, a massive B-52 bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Saturday's procession could mimic the sounds of the original strike, Mr. Hess said.

        At the park, members will participate in a special service that will include a speech by Everett Reamer, 79, of North Bend. The World War II Army veteran was captured in the Philippines in 1942 and spent three years as a prisoner of war.

        Mr. Hess said the event's mission will be accomplished if just one person realizes how horrific it can be to never know what happened to a loved one who disappears during a war.

        “If it's only one person, then it is one more person who knows,” he said. “It's a small thing we can do to help them.”

        Rolling Thunder's latest chapter, which formed in February, meets monthly at the American Legion Post 123 in Norwood. Sessions begin at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month.

        Members, who pay $20 annual membership fees, have raised money for veterans, organized cookouts for them and visited them at nursing homes.

        For more information, call Mr. Hess at 623-9570. "