Motorcyclists Run For The Wall

[Fred Shannon]

There's an event that occurs every year around Memorial Day whereby motorcyclists from California, Oregon, Washington start a journey to Washington DC in order to 'advise our elected officials' about the plight of the POW's and the veterans from all wars and this year especially those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Southern route always brings this trip through this part of Texas.

As a tribute to this great endeavor Doyle 'Shady' Mitchell and his wife Debbie (who did all the video) have written an appropriate song to honor this annual event. Doyle is an excellent steel player. He and Debbie have put all the music to this song with Doyle's great voice featured on it. Hope you like it, and tell them what you think of this patriotic pair's efforts:

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=WDLidqeNyzY

[Fred Justice]

Fred that is very touching, thanks for sharing friend.

[Howard Tate]

Thanks for reminding us what Memorial Day is really about, Fred. It's hard to watch with a dry eye.

[Gene Jones]

Fred, thank you for making this available, and my appreciation to Shady and Debbie for a great job on both the music and the video. It's good to be reminded of the sacrifices that so many have made.

Gene Jones

[Larry Petree]

Being a Korea vet,(the forgotten war) this means a lot to me. Thanks, Larry Petree

[Fred Shannon]

Larry you'd like our new All Veterans Memorial here. We fought like mad to get a Vietnam Memorial here and finally got it dedicated in 1991. Something was missing however and we asked about and found out the WW II and Korea vets were feeling left out so we got busy and scrounged up a little over 20 grand and built a new memorial to all veterans with all of the services represented with Service Seals on different sides of the obelisk. Wish you could have been here Monday when we dedicated it to every vet that ever served. Not a dry eye in the house and I even saw some of the older guys got down on one knee. We have finally brought closure to those heroes. I would post a pic, but I think that facility is still not brought up after the crash, but if you'll email me at fjshannon1@suddenlink.net, I'll send you a couple of pics of the memorial.




phred

[Fred Shannon]

Wow, you guys overloaded my isp email capability. I've taken care of the problem and you can start sending the emails for any pics of the memorial. Larry the Spam monster got yours but it's clear now. Come on back.

Edited to add: Several folks have asked if this song is copyrighted and a call to Shady confirms it is NOT and you can certainly d'load it for your personal use.

phred

[Bob Tuttle]

I was in Colorado City, Texas last Saturday, when over 500 of these motorcyclists came through. It was quite a sight to behold. There were several truck with trailers accompanying the group, and all the traffic came to a standstill to watch them as they drove by.

[Fred Shannon]

Hey Bob, this is the first year we've missed. But it was a heck of a site. Those same guys stopped at our memorial here and then went on to Fort Worth that night. Next year Shady and the school kids are working to raise money to feed them lunch next year. Great bunch of guys and most of them love country music.

phred

[Doyle Mitchell]

Fred thanks for posting our little video, that was thoughtful of you. Deb filmed them as they passed our house , so I wrote a cover song to play while the video was playing. Our middle school here is responsible for bringing the bikers through here each year as part of a "Real Heros" program, but their grant has expired and now they must bear the burden of expense to bring the bikers through and feed them as they have done for several years now, several people have donated money to the school for a copy of this on DVD, that is why I gave it to the school to hopefully help raise a little money to keep this great program alive and going. The other day a young boy started talking to me about Viet Nam and it shocked me, so I asked him if his grand dad was a Viet Nam vet and he said no, that he had learned about it in school in the Real Heros program, I decided right then and there that I would do anything I could to help keep this program going for our kids. Let them never forget our heros in any war. God Bless, Shady

[Charles Curtis]

Fred, a lot of those guys are retired military. Some stopped by Bethesda Naval Hospital, to eat on their way out.