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Reenactment of “The Ride of Pride” in Smethport
Motorcyclists
from around the area reenacted the Ride of Pride on Sunday,
June 3rd, to commemorate the
“Ride of
Pride” which occurred in June, 2006 when “The Moving
Vietnam Wall” was escorted by more than 1200
motorcyclists
from near
Marienville, PA to Hamlin Lake Park in Smethport.
Gerry Ford, organizer of the reenactment
of the
Ride of Pride stated “I have two patches on my vest….one
says The Price of Freedom which is shown written
on
the Vietnam Wall and the second patch says I touched the
Wall and it touched my heart”.
Prior to the beginning of the ride,
Howard McCollough, Deputy District Commander of the 23rd
District of the
State of Pennsylvania, presented a
replacement Gold Star to Dave Keesler whose brother, Steve
Keesler, had
given his life in The Vietnam War. The original Gold Star presented to the Keesler family
was
lost in a house fire.
To begin the commemoration reenactment ride,
motorcyclists gathered at
11:00 AM in front of the Smethport VFW
and started their ride to the same town where they met the
Moving
Vietnam Wall in June 2006. The
reenactment, escorted by an army humvee and followed by
approximately 150
motorcyclists, arrived at the Vietnam
Memorial at Hamlin Lake at 3:00 PM.
After
their arrival a military ceremony was held to remember those
who gave their
lives in the Vietnam
War. Balloons were released at the end of the ceremony
with yellow, red, and blue balloons representing
all Vietnam Veterans
and black balloons to represent those who lost their lives in
Nietnam.
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