Rolling Thunder makes noise about POW, MIA

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ)- Memorial Day weekend is days away. Many consider it the start of summer, but for others it’s a more somber occasion to remember the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to fight for this country.

On Wednesday, a group stopped by Frankfort’s Vietnam Memorial to honor them.

Monuments are often quiet places where you can reflect. Some would argue, though, to preserve a memory through generations, you have to make some noise, some thunder.

Hundreds of bikers thundered through Frankfort Wednesday for a stop on Rolling Thunder’s Run for the Wall. About a million bikers ride to Washington, D.C. for Memorial Day weekend.

They start in California and pick up riders in each new state. For years, they’ve stopped in Frankfort to see the Vietnam memorial.

The sundial momentarily shadows the thunder. Vietnam veteran James Allen Gero from California says the ride is emotional.

“We’re not ever going to forget those people who are MIAs or POWs so this happens often. There’s lots of tears as we go cross country,” Gero said.

It was his best friend Charles Coe’s idea to make the trip.

He thought it would be wonderful to see the tears stream down his friends face at the different stops. He’s learned it’s hard to see them when they’re rolling from your own.

“It’s phenomenal. It’s fantastic. It’s maybe, other than marrying my wife, the most awesome thing I have ever done in my life,” Coe said.

Even in respectful quiet, the goal is making noise.

“It isn’t just about a celebration or a ceremony. This is a protest. This is a protest so we hold our government accountable for each and every one of those lives that is still missing in action,” veterans’ advocate Heather French Henry said.

As we near memorial day, Rolling Thunder leaders say 82,000 service members are still left in harms way.

The bikers continue onto C.C. to fight for them, but we all know, they leave something behind, a memory that has been rev’d up.