Iraq Veteran Discovers What Good Charities Do

Help is on its way for local veteran 
ABC Nerws 13 WHAM
October 22 2015

Home Depot and Patriot Guard Riders, along with several other organizations, will be helping make repairs to the home.

Chili, N.Y. - Efforts are underway to help a local Iraq War veteran who recently had a stroke. As a result of the stroke, Andrew Hand now has trouble speaking, leaving him unable to work.

"It's a day to day lifelong recovery," said his wife Erica, who picked up another job to help support the family and make ends meet. "I think we're adjusting pretty well given the circumstances." With the single income, however, home repairs have had to go on the backburner.
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Homeless Veterans Buried With Honor

Homeless veterans buried with honors 
Ocala Star Banner
Andy Fillmore
July 24, 2015

Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Star-Banner Members of the U.S. Military Veterans Motorcycle Club and the Patriot Guard Riders of Florida lead the casket of Raymond J. Nowicki to a burial ceremony during the Homeless Veterans Burial Program at Forest Lawn Funeral Home on South Pine Avenue south of Ocala, Fla. on Friday, July 24, 2015. Two burial ceremonies were held by Veterans Services for Marion County for two homeless veterans, Raymond J. Nowicki, 82, who served in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955 and Ross Clyde Walls, 63, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1993. Both veterans will be buried in Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell....

OCALA - Two honorably discharged veterans, both homeless and indigent, were honored with military honors Friday at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens prior to their burial at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

Individual ceremonies were held for Raymond Nowicki, 82, a U.S. Army veteran who died June 1, and U.S. Navy veteran Ross Walls, 63, who died on May 21. The deaths were not connected. This is the eighth year local partners have conducted such ceremonies. This was the first time the group conducted two on the same day.

Nowicki served in the Army from Aug. 3, 1953, through Aug. 3, 1955.

Walls was in the Navy 22 years, from Dec. 15, 1970, to Jan. 31, 1993. read more here

Chief Master Sergeant Edwin E. Morgan Sr Escort Home

Vietnam veteran's remains return to NC
WCNC
Dan Yesenosky
June 25, 2015

The Patriot Guard is escorting the remains to a funeral home in Rockwell.

(Photo: NBC Charlotte)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Vietnam War veteran missing in action for close to 50 years is back on U.S. soil. The remains of Chief Master Sergeant Edwin E. Morgan Sr. landed in Charlotte Thursday afternoon just after noon.

"This is a man who at 17 years old joined the service, actually he started in the Navy, then he went to the Army and then to the Air Force," said Patriot Guard C.W. Smith.

Edwin Morgan had been Missing In Action for 49 years.

"In 1966 his plane went down," Smith said.

Today he is home. The organization "Rolling Thunder Washington, D.C." says Morgan's remains had been identified through a match in dental records and landed at Charlotte Douglas Airport. The remains were carried from the plane and put into the hearse.

A massive procession of over 100 motorcycles escorted him 47 miles to Rockwell in Rowan County, where he'll be buried next to his wife.

"This is a man who wrote his name on a blank check," Smith said. "It was filled out to pay to the order of the United States of America. Unfortunately on the amount paid was the ultimate sacrifice of his life."

Morgan was 38 years old at the time in 1966, but through all these years he was never forgotten.
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Community Steps Up For Vietnam Veteran and Patriot Guard Rider

Community Helps Sinton Veteran Who Lost Home to Fire
SINTON (Kiii News)
Posted: Jun 19, 2015

Friends and family of a Vietnam veteran in Sinton who lost his home to a fire are reaching out to help him out.

Kiii News Reporter Brian Burns went to Sinton Friday to speak with veteran and Patriot Guard Rider Tony Maldonado and came back with more details on how the community is stepping up to help.
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Vietnam Veteran Patriot Guard Rider Killed in Motorcycle Accident

Victim Of Deadly Interstate 35 Motorcycle Crash Was Vietnam Veteran
KWTX News Texas
By: Ben Griffin
May 1, 2015

A 67-year-old man who died Friday morning in a motorcycle accident on Interstate 35 was a Vietnam veteran and a member of the Central Texas chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders.

SALADO (May 1, 2015) The motorcyclist killed Friday morning when his three-wheeled bike overturned and landed on top of him following a crash with another vehicle on Interstate 35 in Salado was identified Friday evening as Robert D. Binkely 67, of Round Rock.

Binkely was a Vietnam Veteran and member of the Patriot Guard Riders, Ron “Joker” Smith of the Patriot Guard Riders Central Texas Region said.

Binkley participated in more than 850 honor missions over the past five years, Smith said, and was dedicated to veterans and the veterans’ community. read more here

Memorial For Homeless Veteran Attended by Hundreds

Hundreds Gather For Funeral Of Homeless Oklahoma Veteran 
6 News Oklahoma
Posted: May 01, 2015

OKLAHOMA CITY - Hundreds packed into the chapel to say goodbye to Jerry Bryan Billings. Even more stood outside. Billings was born in 1945 in Sulphur. He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 69. 

For two months, Christine Hoffman with Oklahoma County Social services tried to track down his family. But after having no success, she contacted Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial program. And after word got out on social media about the memorial service, it went viral.

"This was just amazing, absolutely amazing, my heart is swollen," said Hoffman.

“The more people that will show up to celebrate the life of these veterans, the more meaningful it is,” said Chapel Hill Funeral General Manager, Todd Tramel.

“Sometimes it brings tears to you just because these men and women gave so much for our country and just to celebrate their lives, and to give back in a manner like this is beautiful.”
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Family's 45 Year Wait Ends As Fallen Soldier Brought Home

Fallen soldier comes home from Vietnam 45 years later 
WCNC.com
April 9, 2015

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bunyan Price died 45 years ago during the Vietnam War. Today his family was finally able to see him come home.

The family was joined at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport by a police escort along with some 300 members of the Patriot Guard.

They looked on as the casket with Price's remains was slowly lowered from the aircraft that carried him on the last leg of his long journey home.

His uncle, Harley Walker Jr. said, "We were kind of shocked but it is a relief."

Relief that the family now knows what happened to Price, who was a 19 year old fighting in Vietnam.
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Subclass of Fort Hood Wounded Don't Count

Fort Hood’s mentally wounded veterans don’t qualify for Purple Hearts 
2009 shooting now classified as ‘terror’
The Washington Times
By Jacqueline Klimas
Thursday, April 9, 2015

“They don’t think we should have that medal, because they don’t think we have been wounded. Well, I beg to differ,” said Mr. Woods, who is a Vietnam-era veteran who suffers from PTSD himself.

As victims and families are honored Friday for the sacrifices they made in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, some say the Department of Defense is ignoring soldiers who died from invisible wounds suffered that day.

The Defense Department is awarding 47 Purple Hearts and Defense of Freedom Medals, the latter being the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart, to victims and the families of those who were killed in the shooting.

The event holds special meaning to some, as it ends a years-long battle to classify the shooting as a terrorist attack, not workplace violence.

But for others, the battle is far from over.

“I will always have an empty chair at my table,” said Harold Berry, the father of a soldier stationed at the Texas base at the time of the shooting.

“A Purple Heart isn’t going to bring him back, but it would help my family have some closure.” 

 Mr. Berry’s son, Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Berry, committed suicide in February 2013. 

While he suffered a shoulder injury in the shootout on that November day in 2009, his father said it was the mental wounds sustained during the shooting that left a lasting impact and led to his death from PTSD. The younger Berry won’t be honored at tomorrow’s ceremony.
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Poster Child of Patriotic Motorcycle Rider

Moffitt devoted to veterans 
The Daily Courier
Matt Hinshaw
2/16/2015

Matt Hinshaw/The Daily Courier Army Veteran John Moffitt served during the Vietnam era and is a Patriot Guard Rider, American Legion Rider, and retired as city attorney of Prescott.

PRESCOTT - Sporting an Army cap and leather jacket covered with pro-veteran emblems and buttons, John Moffitt is the poster child of a patriotic motorcycle rider. And he is OK with that image.
The 65-year-old retired Prescott city attorney is an assistant state captain of the Patriot Guard Riders and state chairman of the American Legion Riders; he is an active member of American Legion Post 6 in downtown Prescott; and judge advocate for District 8.

His motive: as a Vietnam-era veteran he wants to honor and salute any man or woman who fights for the freedom of this nation, particularly those who pay the ultimate sacrifice.

He remembers all too vividly the disrespect suffered by too many Vietnam veterans, and has vowed to do all he can to assure all veterans are treated with respect and dignity for answering their nation's call to duty. read more here

Vietnam Era Veteran, Alone and Homeless in Life, Honored After Death

Homeless Army veteran from St. Tammany laid to rest with full military honors
The Times Picayune
Kim Chatelain
November 14,2014

Staff Sgt. Matthew Buenrostro completes the flag folding ceremony during the memorial tribute to Pfc. Patrick Higgins at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Slidell, Louisiana on Friday, November 14, 2014. Higgins served during the Vietnam era and was homeless when he died. His fellow veterans and local officials bestowed upon him the Louisiana Veteran's medal and gave the former serviceman a noble burial.
(Photo by Julia Kumari Drapkin, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

On a cool, lustrous day at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery near Slidell, military and civilian dignitaries gathered with pomp and patriotism to pay tribute to the somewhat mysterious life of Patrick Joseph Higgins, an Army veteran whose body was never claimed after his death on June 26, 2011, at age 61.

Because he is believed to have been from St. Tammany Parish and because his family could not be located, Higgins' ashes were eventually turned over to the St. Tammany Parish President's Veteran and Military Affairs Advisory Council, which spearheaded the ceremony.

"Today, you are his family," Ted Krumm, a retired Navy commander and director of the veterans cemetery, told the gathering at the service for Higgins. Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, the Northshore Honor Guard and representatives from several veteran and military organizations were involved in the ceremony.

Higgins was a private first class in the Army during the Vietnam era. He was born on Sept. 11, 1949. Other than that, Krumm said little is known about the Army veteran or his death because his family could not be located. His remains were retained by a local funeral home for many months in hopes of someone claiming them. No one did.

When it was discovered that Higgins had served in the military, various veterans groups got involved, determining that he had been honorably discharged in the 1970s.
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Vietnam Veteran Air Force Sergeant Robert Earn Davenport Laid To Rest With Love

Strangers Hold Memorial, Pay For Veteran’s Burial
CBS News
Budd Gilett
November 19, 2014

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Complete strangers gathered to say good-bye Wednesday at a touching memorial in Dallas for a veteran who left no known relatives.

Those in attendance were moved to pay for a burial service including full military honors. They were mostly Patriot Guards and nurses from Methodist Richardson Medical Center who gathered at the DFW National Cemetery to bury a man who never uttered a word to any of them. A man with no known family; adopted in death.

“We’re a family,” said Mark Littell, Ride Captain of the Patriot Guard, referring to the military and the caregivers. “The nurses in the hospital talked about being part of Mr. Davenport’s family because his family wasn’t there. And we feel the same way.”

The Mr. Davenport he spoke of was Air Force Sergeant Robert Earn Davenport. A 68-year-old Vietnam veteran sent unconscious to the hospital from a nursing home… who spent his last hours fighting cancer, unaware of the new care surrounding him.
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Deland American Legion Post Dedicated in Honor of Fallen Soldier

UPDATE
Video from dedication
Deland Florida American Legion Post #2093 was dedicated to Sgt. Adam Quinn, of Fort Bragg, killed in Afghanistan in 2007.

Deland American Legion Sgt. Adam Quinn Post

Deland JR ROTC

Jay Conti Sr Florida Department Commander designed this car

This lady painted all the tiles

Patriot Guard Riders

Fitting Honor for Fallen Marine by Patriot Guard Riders and Citizens

Crowd salutes fallen Marine
Fredericksburg.com
BY REGINA WEISS
THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Lee Russell leaned against his motorcycle Tuesday afternoon outside the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, joining the crowds honoring Sgt. Charles C. Strong, a Marine who died Sept. 15 in combat in Afghanistan.

Many others joined Russell to watch the Stafford County Sheriff deputies and the Strength and Honor Motorcycle Club escort the hearse carrying Strong’s body, but for Russell, it was personal.

He was remembering the death of his own son, Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Michael Russell, who died trying to save others in Afghanistan in 2005.

“I’m standing for him, because he would do it, he would be out here,” Russell said.

Russell, who was part of the escort June 27 for deceased Marine Staff Sgt. David H. Stewart, is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, an organization whose members attend funerals of those who serve in the military.
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Sep 23, 2014 A crowd gathered at the Eagles Lodge on Cool Springs Road in Stafford County to honor Marine Sgt. Charles C. Strong, 28, who died Sept. 15 in Afghanistan. His funeral procession passed through the Fredericksburg area Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Wounded Iraq Veteran Gets Home

WOUNDED VETERAN SHOWN THANKS WITH NEWLY RENOVATED HOME
ABC News 13
By Steve Campion
Thursday, September 11, 2014

PEARLAND, TX (KTRK) -- On Meadow Green Drive in Pearland Thursday morning, there was no shortage of American pride.

A large group gathered to give Staff Sergeant Michael Craven a new home including Patriot Guard volunteers. Craven was injured on his 2nd tour in Iraq back in 2011. An IED went off near his vehicle, the attack left him with serious back problems.

"Often times, I'd fall over trying to walk," said Sgt. Craven. "They fix that. I still new 2 more surgeries."

The Texas Sentinels Foundation and Bank of America teamed up to make the event possible. The foundation renovated house. Bank of America donated the property.
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Procession 3 miles long escorted fallen Marine Home

New Braunfels welcomes home fallen Marine
Sgt. Thomas Spitzer killed last week in Afghanistan
ABC 12 News
By Stephanie Serna
KSAT Reporter
July 4, 2014

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas - It was an emotional homecoming for fallen Marine Sgt. Thomas Spitzer, 23, as the New Braunfels community gathered along FM 758 to thank the young sergeant and his family for his service.

"To show support for the family and their extreme loss," said Rhonda Sanders, a New Braunfels resident.

"He gave all so we can have the freedoms we have today."

Spitzer was killed just over a week ago while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan.

On Friday, a nearly 3 mile long procession with patriot guard riders, emergency vehicles, family members and friends made its way through New Braunfels to honor the fallen Marine.
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Bank of America 1,000th military home donation

Veteran receives free home in Gallatin
The Tennessean
Dessislava Yankova, Nashville
April 25, 2014

After dedicating more than five decades to serving others, a military family looks forward to putting down roots in a Gallatin home.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Don Chandler and wife Gail on Friday received the keys to a mortgage-free home surrounded by family, public officials, veterans and community members. A procession of the Patriot Guard Riders with American flags and police cars came to the house, where the Gallatin High School band played several songs including “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

About 100 people came to thank Chandler for his service and congratulate the family on the new home awarded by Bank of America in partnership with nonprofit Military Warriors Support Foundation, which helps servicemen transitioning into civilian life.

“Words can’t express how I feel right now,” Chandler, 45, said after receiving the house’s keys. “For so many years, we were always moving. You have given me and my wife a chance to become stable and build a foundation.”

The giveaway marked the bank’s 1,000th military home donation. Thirty-two homes have been given in Tennessee.
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Love Letter Tribute at VFW Post 2093

HOTH MISSION
Salute to our Fallen Soldiers
Orlando, Florida
Sunday, February 23, 2014

 

Join us in a Salute to our Fallen Soldiers as we honor them through a Love Letter Tribute, Ceremonial Balloon Release, Children's Activities, and Poetry. Gold Star family members will attend this memorable occasion held at a scenic waterfront park. This is the second of its kind event. It will open with a color guard, the 13 folds of the flag presentation, and keynote speaker US Army chaplain. This event is open to all family members and friends of our Fallen Soldiers.

 

Let's bring our flags and stand a flag line for a Salute to our Fallen Hero's.

 

Patriot Guard Riders will be there!

Staging will be at the: VFW Post 2093
4444 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, FL 32804
MAP: http://tinyurl.com/lsly6jc

Westboro Baptist Church Bails On Protest Plans

I just saw this video from October. Better late than never and when you see all the people showing up to stop Westboro Baptist haters, I am sure you'll agree.

Oct 20, 2013 Thousands of citizens join Patriot Guard Riders to repel the Westboro Baptist Church's plans to picket the funeral of Army Ranger PFC Cody Patterson at Oregon State Univeristy. Westboro never showed up, or if they did, they didn't even bother getting out of their cars. Estimated crowd size of 2000+ must have been too much for them.

Patriot Guard Riders and a soldier's solemn, honorable return home

A soldier's solemn, honorable return home
Tampa Bay Times
By Weston Phippen, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, December 5, 2013

The bikers gathered in a circle outside the funeral home. Some with beards and bellies — looser frames than when many of them were young and serving their country.

They bowed their heads and said a prayer.

A man in a leather jacket asked God to watch over the night escort from the funeral home in Clearwater to Tampa International Airport and back. He asked to ease the family's pain, and he thanked young men everywhere who leave home for overseas and return in cargo holds.

An older woman walked near and disappeared into the arms of Thomas Brown, the assistant state captain for the Patriot Guard Riders.

After the embrace she thanked him.

"It's an honor for us to be here," Brown said.

Only hours before many of the Patriot Guard Riders had watched as a soldier who'd lost his legs in war was handed keys to a new home; now they were here.

The family of Spc. Justin Kyle Adams loaded into a black hearse. Police escorts flipped on their lights, followed by the riders on motorcycles. The procession headed into the night and turned east onto Gulf to Bay Boulevard.

They rode staggered, with American flags secured to their machines, a flapping line stretching over the bridge toward the airport.
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Strangers come together to give homeless Army veteran a proud send-off

Strangers come together to give homeless Army veteran a proud send-off
WFAA
by JIM DOUGLAS
Posted on November 7, 2013

DALLAS -- Don Hart was a homeless man who lost his way in the world, but was finally found.

He now rests among the neat rows of markers at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. He received a military funeral Thursday afternoon, with gratitude from soldiers and veterans who never knew him.

More than two dozen Patriot Guard Riders paid respects.

An honor guard folded the flag. A few words were needed said.

"Nobody knows this man here. Not one of us,” said Patriot Guard Ride Captain Rick Crabb. “But he's home with heroes now."

The honors were earned a lifetime ago in Vietnam -- that much we know.

"We know he's an Army vet. We know he served honorably from '71 to '73," Crabb told the mourners.

And they were mourners, though strangers.
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