(Allan Paone, right, a 15-year member of Rolling Thunder, directs bikers to their staging position at Pentagon North Parking in Arlington. Thousands of members from Rolling Thunder chapters across the country participated in the ride through the nation’s capitol. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden).

The bikes are headed from all points of the compass toward Pentagon North Parking this morning. Rolling Thunder XXVII “Ride for Freedom,” will push off at noon for the big parade ride past the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. For the first time this year, the list of names from The Wall also included those who perished in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They started rolling out of the campground across the street from Big Pink around 0600 to get decent spots at the Pentagon.

It is an interesting juxtaposition of cultures over there this morning. The Bikers are of a certain demographic and a certain age, and the kind of motorcycles they ride are expensive toys- not exactly the type that Marlin Brando’s Wild Ones of long ago rode in to terrorize the town.

Other motorized activities were in progress as the older generation rolled out: the volunteers who maintain the gray Blue Bird former school bus of the Iglisia Pentacostal Luz Verdadera Tor De Arlington were out as well, doing preventive maintenance to support bussing the faithful for services later this morning.

The Iglisia shares the infrastructure of the Assembly of God Church, which I suspect has excess capacity these days based on the number of cars in the parking lot Sunday Mornings, but everyone seems to get along, and the church is happy to host the Rolling Thunder folks in the parking lot near the common garden.

The Pentagon North Parking Lot is part of what they formally call the Pentagon Reservation, which adjoins the portion of the Custis-Lee estate that was seized by the Federal Government as a cemetery for Union War Dead- some of them killed at The Wilderness, just down the Germana Turnpike from Refuge Farm. And considering the plan is to get interred at Arlington myself, there is a symmetry to the whole thing that is sort of appealing.

I am glad they are including the casualties of the later wars. With the disappointing revelations about Veteran health care, it is important to remember the latest generation of sacrifice along with those who have gone before.

My family’s Union and Confederate kin served in the west, or at least what passed for the west in those days. Patrick Griffin was at Ft Donelson, was captured by U.S. Grant’s men, did a year in jail in Chicago before being paroled and returning to combat with the 10th Tennessee at Raymond, MS. Great Great Grandfather Foley was at the siege of Vicksburg, among other scenic locales.

(Artist Jerry McWilliams unveils the portrait of Colonel Randal McGavock: God’s Own Gentleman. McGavock, commander of the 10th Tennessee Irish, was killed during the Battle of Raymond. Uncle Patrick is at lower left, from his enlistment Daguerreotype. This story has actual elements of truth.)

I am comforted that both did at least three years service. Patrick told his stories in 1905 in the Confederate Veteran’s Magazine, and James just held his peace about the whole thing. Some modern historians have reviled Patrick as a braggart, but I like him, and he does have his supporters. His stories late in life include accounts of service at the end of things on the staff of John Bell Hood in Georgia, but I think it is as likely that he unilaterally ended his time as a private soldier after Raymond and returned to private life.

James enlisted at Steubenville, OH, in 1861 and served his three-year enlistment. He re-upped in 1864 and was granted home leave. While back in Ohio, he had second thoughts and did not return to the war, marrying Patrick’s sister.

They both had subsequent long and full lives as successful small business owners. But I am proud that both my direct ancestors in the conflict were technically deserters. Hence, neither would qualify for burial at Arlington, though I thought about that briefly when I dropped a note to the people at The Atlantic Magazine when I cancelled my subscription last week.

I told them that while I had subscribed to the venerable publication for most of my life- not just the adult part- I thought they recently had lost their way. Check out the story on the cover of the June issue and see what you think.

I know what I do, and if that is the level of discourse in this great land, I have had enough of it, particularly on a holiday like this one.

Anyway, while I love the spectacle and the sound of the thousands motorcycles, I am not going to challenge the police escorts for the thousands of bikers coming in from the west (I-66), north (I-95) and the east and north (Rt. 50 and I-270). There are police escorts ahead of them, and the roads inbound are going to be jammed all morning coming in, and then all afternoon going out.

I think I will take a dip in the chill but inviting waters of the pool, salute the Thunder Road, and head the other way for the farm. This holiday is not about those who served, after all we have a holiday for Veterans. This one is about those who did not make it home again.

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303