Thread: Rolling Thunder Washington, DC Inc.

Rolling Thunder Washington, DC Inc.
April 18 · Edited
Only 33 days to Rolling Thunder XXVII!

Due to the increasing number of e-mails we are receiving related to the dates/times of the Rolling Thunder Run, please consider sharing this info...thank you!

For planning purposes, the dates are Friday, May 23rd - Monday, May 26th, 2014 (Memorial Day Weekend).

The actual run starts at 12:00, Sunday, May 25th, 2014, the Pentagon Parking Lot.

"The Run" is the world's largest one-day event with over one million participants!

For info related to the run, check out the following links:

• Rolling Thunder, Washington, DC., Inc., website link - http://rollingthunderrun.com/

http://www.loudountimes.com/news/art..._of_a_lifetime

For all our new friends and those unfamiliar with the significance of the iconic Rolling Thunder Demonstration Run, click the following link to view a video that highlights the importance of the run and what it represents to millions of people and their families.





The ride of a lifetime

Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2013 by Andrew Sharbel, Times-Mirror Staff Writer

Rolling Thunder founder Walt Sides of Round Hill, left, and Board of Directors member Rob Wilkins of Lansdowne pose on their motorcycles at Sides’ home, also the Rolling Thunder headquarters, on Sept. 18. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny

“No man left behind.”

It's the U.S. military mantra.

Many Medals of Honor, Purple Hearts and other military commendation medals are a result of this decree.

Cpl. Tony Stein received the Medal of Honor during World War II in 1945 at the Battle of Iwo Jima for charging the bunkered down Japanese before he ran out of bullets. He then ran back to re-arm, doing this eight times, each time picking up a wounded fellow Marine.

This code is drilled into each Marine, soldier, sailor and airman before and during their initial training.

For Walt Sides and Rob Wilkins, a retired U.S. Marine and retired Air Force master sergeant, respectively, that code has led them to build the largest one-day event in the nation in support of missing military and prisoners of war. The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Demonstration Run is held every Memorial Day in Washington, D.C.

Sides co-founded the event and is the executive director of Rolling Thunder Washington D.C. Inc.

Wilkins joined the effort in 2009 after seeing the event in person and currently serves on the organization's Board of Directors.

A legendary Marine

Sides was born in Mustang, Okla. in 1939. He joined the Marines in 1956 and spent 21 years in the Corps, retiring as a first sergeant in 1977.

He did two tours in Vietnam as a Marine Scout Sniper.

With native Cherokee and Lakota running through his veins, Sides was a hunter as a youngster and a general outdoorsman now, often going south on hog hunts and other excursions.

In his first tour from 1966-67, he led a platoon of 40 snipers, which became the first U.S. Marine Sniper Scout platoon trained exclusively in a combat zone.

The exploits of the platoon were chronicled in the book “Dead Center” published by Ed Kugler, one of Sides' former marksmen.

Sides now lives with his wife, Laura, in Round Hill, just east of the newly opened Boulder Crest Retreat for wounded warriors. The couple has lived at their farm, which also serves Rolling Thunder Headquarters, for 10 years.

During the past 27 years, Sides has never wavered from the initial POW/MIA issue.

“Our thing is full accountability and we have people that lobby Congress for us, including Rob. We have been up together to see [House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman U.S. Rep.] [Jeff] Miller (R-Florida) and former Rep. Allen West,” Sides said. “We presently have four teams over in Vietnam and in 2012 they [uncovered] 28 remains. An additional 70 remains are currently in Hawaii waiting to be identified and that is what we are all about.”

In addition to being a POW/MIA activist and war hero, Sides is a gold-medal winning competitive arms shooter with pistols and rifles.

“I was showing off one day at the pistol range,” Sides said with a chuckle. “I was messing around with somebody and I told him I was going to blow that target off of that stick and I did. The range officer was behind me unbeknownst to me. He told me to do it again several times.”

The range officer told Sides he didn't think there was anyone on the range with his talent. When Sides returned the next day, the range officer bluntly ordered him to shoot – a lot.

“He said 'I want you down here at 10 o'clock every morning down on the end shooting until brass comes up to your ass,'” Sides said.

Now, Sides spends most of his retired days on the phone, organizing Rolling Thunder.

Last year, the couple toured the country in their motor home, showing off the five service motorcycles custom made for the rally.

Wilkins says Sides is nothing short of a legend.

“He might not tell you, but he is a legendary marine. He has a Purple Heart. And when his Marines see him – I still call them his Marines – he will ask them to come to [Rolling Thunder] and they come because Walt has asked them to come. He is in charge and he is a big bear, but you couldn't ask for a better friend,” Wilkins said.

'I thought it was just a bunch of bikers and trouble ...'

Hailing from Linden, N.J., Wilkins joined the Air Force in 1983.

With the Air Force, Wilkins has been stationed all over the world, beginning at Prum Air Station Germany.

“I have had the opportunity to go to about 40 different countries while serving in the Air Force,” Wilkins said. “I have met so many people as a result of being in the Air Force and I must say we are very lucky because this country is an amazing place with lots of opportunities and we are very fortunate to be born here.”

Wilkins retired from the Air Force in 2009 as a master sergeant. His last job in the Air Force was as Superintendent of Operations for Legislative Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon.

“I was a congressional escort, so what that job entailed was I took members of Congress around the world to do the business of the government,” Wilkins said. “I was very fortunate in that position to see how Americans are perceived by the rest of the world.”

Although he never fought in Vietnam, the POW/MIA issue resonated with Wilkins, much like it did with Sides.

“Walt and I are both retired military veterans and our involvement with Rolling Thunder provides us an opportunity to continue serving our great nation, assisting the brave men and women protecting our freedom and sharing the wisdom others have shared with us,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins joined the cause in 2009 after his wife attended the event and told him about it.

“I had heard about Rolling Thunder before and my wife told me about the event after attending one year. I thought it was just a bunch of bikers and trouble ...” he said.

Wilkins moved to Lansdowne in 2010 with his family and now serves as the director of audience development for Weider History Group Inc., a magazine publishing company headquartered in Leesburg. The company publishes 11 different titles like Vietnam and World War II magazines.

A place of solace

Through the past six world conflicts, unbeknownst to many, there's an astounding number of prisoners of war and missing in action service members.

According to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, from World War II to present, there are more than 83,000 Americans still listed as unaccounted for or missing.

Four men started a rally 26 years ago for those 83,000.

Every Memorial Day since 1988, veterans and their rumbling engines roar into the D.C. area to remember their fallen and missing brothers in arms.

Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle ride stretching from the North Pentagon parking lot over the Memorial Bridge past the Lincoln Memorial, around the National Mall to West Potomac Park, has grown during the last 26 years to become the largest single day event in the world.

The ride has grown from 2,500 riders in its first year to 500,000 riders in its 25th year. At the 25th Anniversary Ride, an estimated 1.3 million riders and spectators descended on Washington for the event.

The nation celebrated POW/MIA Recognition Day Sept. 20 and Rolling Thunder Washington D.C. Inc. held a ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to remember those who placed their country's well-being above their own.

In 1987, Sides, was approached by Ray Manzo about organizing a motorcycle rally in Washington, D.C. to show the world and the nation that the country's prisoners of war and missing in action still mattered to their fellow servicemen.

Sides was joined by Manzo, the late John Holland and the late Ted Sampley to form the four founding fathers of the Rolling Thunder 1st Amendment Ride.

The event's growth can be attributed mostly to word-of-mouth.

“Ray contacted most of the biker organizations to participate,” Sides said. “We also had a lot of private motorcycle clubs come out. We have people come from Scotland, Australia, Japan, Germany, England and Canada.”

While the perception of bikers in a large group resembles popular motorcycle rallies in Daytona Beach and Sturgis, Wilkins and the couple both feel Rolling Thunder is a place of solace – not a place to party.

“It is a place where people of different races, different sexes are included and Walt has made sure of that,” Wilkins said. “Whatever you are, people act respectable when they come here. Some of Walt's friends who are police officers in D.C. have said there is less arrests at one Rolling Thunder event than there are at one Washington Redskins football game.

“Now, we have a million people here. We have gangs that don't [normally] get along and it is a peaceful place and that is indicative of what these Vietnam vets have started and created and how important it is to these people,” Wilkins said.

Prisoners of War and Missing in Action since World War II:

World War II: 73,661
Korean War: 7,906
Cold War: 126
Vietnam War: 1,644
Iraq and other conflicts: 6

Rolling Thunder founder Walt Sides of Round Hill shows a POW-MIA fact book at his desk at Rolling Thunder headquarters Sept. 18. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny

Rolling Thunder founder Walt Sides of Round Hill, left, and Board of Directors member Rob Wilkins of Lansdowne pose on their motorcycles in front of Sides' barn in Round Hill. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny

Rolling Thunder founder Walt Sides talks with a reporter at his Round Hill home Sept. 18. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny

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