On Friday I participated in a PGR recovery mission for Sgt. Thomas Spitzer, USMC who was killed in action in Afghanistan.
http://kxan.com/2014/07/04/hundreds-...-returns-home/
A recovery mission is meeting the Angel Flight bringing home a fallen warrior and escorting the body to the funeral home. You would think that on a holiday turnout would be lower due to family commitments/plans. This was anything but the case. In addition to the PGR there was a VFW sponsored club and the San Antonio chapter of the Leathernecks M/C who led the procession. My guess is about 300 motorcycles participated. Bikes were staged 3-4 deep in the pictures along the entrance road to the airport as well as on the grass area to the left of the last picture. I looked up the route directions on Google Maps, 8.2 miles and 15 minutes drive time. The time for any one participant was just over 45 minutes. This is in part due to the reason for the ride but also because of the turn out of local residents lining the street to pay their respects, a couple of times making us go single file.
Ironically, this is the second recovery mission I have been on and the first one was on July 4, 2012. That time there was a last minute change of flight plans bringing the soldier into Austin rather than Bryan/College Station where he was to be buried and we had about 20 hours notice. Even then we had about 75 riders show up to make the first half of the escort to Dime Box, TX where we were met by the East Texas PGR chapter.
http://kxan.com/2014/07/04/hundreds-...-returns-home/
A recovery mission is meeting the Angel Flight bringing home a fallen warrior and escorting the body to the funeral home. You would think that on a holiday turnout would be lower due to family commitments/plans. This was anything but the case. In addition to the PGR there was a VFW sponsored club and the San Antonio chapter of the Leathernecks M/C who led the procession. My guess is about 300 motorcycles participated. Bikes were staged 3-4 deep in the pictures along the entrance road to the airport as well as on the grass area to the left of the last picture. I looked up the route directions on Google Maps, 8.2 miles and 15 minutes drive time. The time for any one participant was just over 45 minutes. This is in part due to the reason for the ride but also because of the turn out of local residents lining the street to pay their respects, a couple of times making us go single file.
Ironically, this is the second recovery mission I have been on and the first one was on July 4, 2012. That time there was a last minute change of flight plans bringing the soldier into Austin rather than Bryan/College Station where he was to be buried and we had about 20 hours notice. Even then we had about 75 riders show up to make the first half of the escort to Dime Box, TX where we were met by the East Texas PGR chapter.
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