Rolling Thunder XXIV - Ride for Freedom

john1027

Regular
Location
Alexandria, VA
This past Sunday, the roar of about 250,000 motorcycles filled the streets of Washington D.C. as Rolling Thunder XXIV took place as a tribute to military members who have lost their lives in any war or are still listed as prisoners of war (POWs) or missing in action (MIA).

Started twenty-four years ago in 1987 by four Vietnam Veterans, the Rolling Thunder Memorial Day weekend observance has evolved to be not only a demonstration for the POW/MIA issue but also a demonstration of patriotism and respect for soldiers and veterans from all wars. It is a colorful event that is attended by tens of thousands of spectators from all walks of life that travel to the event from all over the country. The ride begins at the Pentagon parking lot and travels over the Memorial Bridge, around the National Mall, and ends at the Lincoln Memorial and the Viet Nam War Memorial. Due to the sheer volume of participants, it takes over 3-4 hours for all the riders to just leave the staging area at the Pentagon to begin their ride. Many of the riders in the event are veterans of the Viet Nam War that took place from 1959 to 1975. It was a tumultuous war and period of time in the U.S., and many veterans have lived with physical and emotional scars from that war all their lives.

This year, I was able to spend some time over the Memorial Day weekend with our own Streetshooter. Don is affiliated with a group in Pennsylvania call the "Friend of the Forgotten" who are very active in the POW/MIA and veteran affairs issues. With the Fuji X100 in hand, Don is like a ninja. On the street, he just seems to slip effortlessly from one picture opportunity to another completely unnoticed.

Anyway, here are a some images from Rolling Thunder XXIV. If you want to see more, click on the link to a gallery on SmugMug.
 
Quite an event - thanks for posting these. Your gallery/slide show is really a great document. Unfortunately the coverage of the day was skewed around one particular person who showed up and tried to hijack it, but these photos show the day for what it was.

Thank you.

-Ray
 
John, thank you so much for all of your photographs. I've just gone through them once, but will go back again, for sure. Even though I don't know any of the people in your pictures, except Don, I feel as though I was there with you both and part of it all.
 
I have few keepers from the day before that I will drop onto some of the existing threads. What I too am looking forward to the results of Don and the X100 to include his upcoming event in Philly. BTW, he alerted me that my local camera dealer had the X100 in stock. I got there about 3 hours later and they were all sold out. I told myself I was only going to look, but who knows what I might have done if I had it in my hand. I think perhaps you and Don might be undercover sales staff from Fuji. Just kidding, as I know that the X100 sells itself! :)
 
Back
Top