September - Rolling Thunder NH 1

Rolling Thunder®
NH-1 Newsletter
WE RIDE FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T
September 2010, Volume 10, Issue 3
Officers:
• President, Jeffrey “DOC” Stewart,
[email protected]
• Vice President, Joe Pepin,
[email protected]
• Secretary, Marsha Bailey,
[email protected]
• Treasurer, Janice Maramaldi-Jolly,
[email protected]
Board Members:
• Chairman, Jay Robicheau,
[email protected]
• Joe Evans, [email protected]
• Russell Jolly, [email protected]
• Bill Downs, [email protected]
• Scott Suchovsky, [email protected]
• Dan Loper, [email protected]
• Bernie Thibault, [email protected]
• Dave Mott, Alt., [email protected]
•
---------------------------------
• Becca Pepin, Jr. Program Director,
Historian, [email protected]
• Steve Grundy, Jr. Program Ass. Director
• Bill Niland, Rd Cpt, Qmstr
• Joseph Evans, Sgt-at-Arms
• Jim Chisholm, Legislative Liason,
[email protected]
• Denise Coulson, Chapter Photographer,
[email protected]
• Pat McGhie, NE Director, Webmaster,
[email protected]
• Richard Borghi, Chapter Chaplain
• Dan Loper; Newsletter Editor,
[email protected]
Meetings are at 7:30 PM the first Tuesday
of each month at the Epping American
Legion Hall, Post 51, located on Rte 125,
across from Telly’s Restaurant
Epping, New Hampshire.
In this issue:
President’s Corner................................ 1
New England Director’s Corner............ 2
Thunder News...................................... 2
Did You Know?..................................... 2
Website of the Month............................ 3
In the Know.......................................... 4
Recent Events...................................... 7
Upcoming Events............................... 13
A Note from the President
This riding season is moving into the last couple
months. We have been a very busy Chapter and again
this season, the Chapter has done a great job getting
our message out and educating the Public about the
POW – MIA issues. September still has quite a few
events from our Annual Elections, Sept. 11 Memorial
Rides, National Prisoners of War-Missing-in-Action
Remembrance Day, a couple fundraisers and of course
our Fallen Member Run. There is still plenty of riding
and opportunity to expand our Mission.
Speaking of expanding our Mission, we are in the process of adding a
second NH Chapter!! There is enough interest and motivation in the Claremont area to take on the challenge of adding a Rolling Thunder New
Hampshire Chapter Two. Make no mistake about it; this is an OUTSTANDING growth marker. This is something that every member of Rolling Thunder®, Inc. should be proud of. NH One was officially chartered in
April of 2001. We held our first Run for the Shelter that summer, this past
month we completed our 10th Run, we will be celebrating our actual 10th
birthday in a few months and we are adding another Chapter. That is fantastic. That means we are getting the message out, creating the interest, and
drive for people to stand up and say “Don’t forget our POW’s and MIA’s”;
“We want full accountability – where are they?”; “Bring them home!!” I
truly look forward to assisting the Claremont group with the Charter process. We have already had conversations, Pat McGhie and I have already
made it known to National that we support the process and look forward to
the official Charter being issued. This is no easy task. A task that will take
some effort, sweat, and stress to accomplish but in the long run an accomplishment well worth the effort and one to be very proud of!!
We had our elections and I just want to say thank you very much to everyone who came and voted, a special thank you to all those who stepped up
and ran for an office. Congratulations to those who were elected. Remember your Oath to serve our Mission and serve our Chapter.
Be Safe and Healthy
Jeffrey “Doc” Stewart
President
RT NH Chpt. I
VOLUME #10, ISSUE #3
ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 2
Director’s Corner
As we enter September, we are all looking at Chapter Elections. These are extremely important as those you elect
now will be who leads your Chapter over the next 2 years. Please vote responsibly for those who will focus on the
primary mission of our Mission Statement.
On the heels of the Elections are two events that your new officers need to be aware of. 1st is our Regional Officers
Meeting which is open to the Pres, VP and COB from each NE Chapter. It will be held Oct 17th at the Epping Legion. We discuss issues
affecting the chapters and also items of discussion for the National
Conference. The National Conference is the 2nd event. It is held Nov
5th & 6th in Washington DC. The conference is open to all members
and I encourage any who can to attend. It can be a learning experience.
Please note that it is required for at least one officer from each Chapter
to attend.
Kudo’s to the Regional Committee for their efforts to coordinate our
first all New England Event. They put a lot of work into the event and
hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves. We will discuss that at the
Regional Officers Meeting in October.
Congratulations also to our Forming Chapter in RI. They recently got the remaining members needed to get to 20
and are now sending in the final papers. Hopefully they will be a full Chapter soon. Good Job RI!
Be Safe out there, keep our military in your thoughts and prayers and thank you all for what you do.
Patrick McGhie
NE States Director
[email protected]
Thunder News
Boot Patch Recepiants
May: Patti Connolly, Darrel Cook, Roger Gosselin Jr, and Keith Hurrell
June: Paul Silvia
September: Ivan Lambert, Donald Leathers, Robert McGuigan, and Mark Willer
Back Patch Recepients
May: Rich Deneka, Roger Gosselin Sr, Dan Loper, Richard Borghi, Joseph Morse, and Terri Kidder
August :Cathy Maneatis
Congratualtions to you all!
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 3
Website of the Month
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/14/georgia.civil.war.camp/index.html?hpt=T2
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The discovery of the exact
location of a stockade and dozens of personal artifacts
belonging to its Union prisoners is one of the biggest
archaeological Civil War finds in decades, federal and
Georgia officials said Monday.
Outside of scholars and Civil War buffs, few people have
heard of the Confederacy’s Camp Lawton, which replaced
the infamous and overcrowded Andersonville prison in
fall 1864. For nearly 150 years, its exact location was not
known, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Southern
University said.
“The weather has been rainy and cold at nights,” Pvt.
Robert Knox Sneden, who was previously imprisoned at
Andersonville, wrote in his diary on Nov. 1, 1864. “Many
prisoners have died from exposure, as not more than half
of us have any shelter but a blanket propped upon sticks.
. . . Our rations have grown smaller in bulk too, and we
have the same hunger as of old.”
Georgia Southern students earlier this year began their
search at a state park and federal fish hatchery for evidence of the wall timbers and interior buildings.. “Archaeologists call it one of the most significant Civil War discoveries in decades,” a joint statement read.
Officials would provide no details until the formal announcement Wednesday morning at Magnolia Springs
State Park, five miles north of Millen in southeast Georgia. An open house for the public will follow from 1 p.m. to
5 p.m.
Life at Lawton, described as “foul and fetid,” wasn’t much
better than at Andersonville, with the exception of plentiful
water from Magnolia Springs. In its six weeks’ existence,
between 725 and 1,330 men died at the prison camp. The
42-acre stockade held about 10,000 men before it was
hastily closed when Union forces approached.
Monday’s announcement follows weeks of speculation
that began after a locked chain-linked fence went up
around the hatchery adjoining the state park. Townspeople in nearby Millen made the secrecy part of their water
cooler discussions. “It’s created a lot of buzz, what’s
going on out there,” said Connie Lee, owner of Cindy’s
Cafe, a popular meeting place in the town of about 3,500.
Rumors have included the discovery of a chest with important papers, gold, a burial trench and, yes, even Union
Gen. William Sherman’s horse.
There are no photos of Lawton and few visual stockade
details, although a Union mapmaker painted some important watercolors of the prison. He also kept a 5,000-page
journal that detailed the misery at Camp Lawton, which
was built to hold up to 40,000 prisoners.
The impending arrival of Federal forces during Sherman’s
March to the Sea soon forced the Confederates to move
the prisoners elsewhere, including Florence, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. In early December 1864,
Union cavalry found the empty prison, a freshly dug area
and a board reading “650 buried here.”
Outraged, troops apparently burned much of the stockade
and the camp buildings, and a depot and a hotel in Millen,
which was a transportation hub. Many of the state park
facilities -- including a pool, houses and the main office -sit atop the prison site. Some earthworks, long known to
visitors and historians, survived.
The artifacts will deepen the knowledge of the tough daily
life of prisoners and guards alike, said a historian who
has completed a manuscript on the camp.
“[Lawton] illustrates almost every Civil War POW issue,”
said John K. Derden, professor emeritus at East Georgia
College which has campuses in nearby Statesboro and
Swainsboro. Derden cited health conditions, death rates,
prisoner exchanges and the South’s dwindling ability to
manage a population where disease and poor sanitation
were in abundance.
Until now, Andersonville was the sole POW camp in the
South to capture the public’s attention and imagination.
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
Besides the camp’s own horrors, Clara Barton made
Andersonville famous through her extensive campaign
to have POW graves found and soldiers reinterred at a
national cemetery. The prison’s commandant, Henry H.
Wirz, was hanged in 1865, the only man to be hanged
for war crimes during the Civil War.
Monuments dot Andersonville National Historic Site,
which drew 136,000 visitors last year. A 1996 movie
tells its story.
None of that happened at Camp Lawton, where time
and its remote location put it on the road to obscurity,
fortunately for archaeologists.
PAGE 4
That promises to change beginning Wednesday, when
the public will get its first glimpse of what life might
have been like for prisoners, many of whom had been
moved to Lawton from Andersonville. Lee and Walter
Bragg, owner of Millen Auto Parts, hope anything associated with the discovery will boost the depressed area,
where a 10.7 percent unemployment rate exceeds the
state average.
“Our county [Jenkins] needs something to revitalize
Millen,” Lee said.
-------IN THE KNOW------Sept. 17 is national
POW-MIA Recognition Day
Along with my fellow veterans, we’ll be teaching lessons in the Upper Freehold, Jackson and Millstone
Township elementary and middle schools about the
meaning behind the National League of Families Prisoners of War Missing In Action (POW-MIA) flag — the
only flag other than “old glory” to be recognized by U.S.
Congress and be placed on display in the U.S. capital
rotunda.
No doubt, many readers of this newspaper have had
their own fourth-graders “teach” them about the POWMIA flag. If not, it’s not too late to learn. How many
readers have taken just two to three minutes time-out
to stand and closely look over the black POW-MIA flag
flying beneath the U.S. flag at a nearby post office, police station, fire house, school or town veterans memorial?
New Jersey is a pretty patriotic state. Many of our
schools display the POW-MIA flag every day outside
just beneath the U.S. flag. Millstone Township introduced a proclamation to fly the POW-MIA flag 24/7 at
its municipal building. In addition to the many thousands of MIAs from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, we remember there are two U.S. soldiers who are listed as
captured/ MIA from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
It’s a federal law to display the POWMIA flag on government buildings, veterans administration offices,
veterans administration hospitals, veterans cemeteries
and post offices on certain specified days — POW-MIA
Recognition Day (the third Friday in September each
year), Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day,
Independence Day and Veteran’s Day.
There’s finality in seeing a loved one buried that can’t
be achieved merely by reading a U.S. Department of
Defense casualty report of a plane shot down and the
pilot (family member) missing and presumed dead, or
of a soldier or marine captured and held as a prisoner
of war but never returned. We’ve been taught that every story has a beginning and an end. For many Americans though the story of their loved one who served
in the military in a war somewhere overseas has no
ending. This year’s POW-MIA Recognition Day poster
(www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pow_day/images/ pow_mia_poster_2010.png) is a graphic reminder of why all Americans should respect the words written on the POW-MIA
flag: “You are Not Forgotten.” As a veteran, I support
the efforts of the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers
wives, sons and daughters of America’s MIAs who
didn’t come home to learn of their fate and to have our
government strive for the fullest possible accounting
of America’s MIAs from all wars. Our U.S. Joint POWMIA Accounting Command (JPAC) teams continue the
search. But, we need to keep pressure on the governments of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Russia and Korea
to cooperate. A grassroots effort and show of concern
across America is key to gaining and keeping those foreign governments support in allowing our JPAC teams
to search, and in assisting them to locate and recover
America’s MIAs.
Everyone is affected by or loses something in a war.
For most of us, war does have a beginning and an
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
end. For military veterans with Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), severe
illness, trauma or loss of limbs, we can never fully put
these wounds or the memory of war behind us. But, we
can and do receive treatment and long term care. But
then, how can we treat the immediate and extended
family members of a U.S. soldier, sailor, airman or
marine who’s listed as MIA and who wasn’t brought
home? I think this is a case where “love thy neighbor”
is the only therapy we can offer until the cure is found.
Please pause a moment on Sept. 17 to recognize
America’s POW-MIAs. Fly the POW-MIA flag. Our MIA
soldiers, sailors, airman and marines are not forgotten.
Nor are their families. If you’d like to show your support
for the families of America’s MIAs, contact your local
PAGE 5
military veterans organization or the National League of
Families at POW-MIAfamilies.org.
Richard D. Brody, State Commander
VVnW and the Veterans Coalition Chairman
Millstone Township Veterans Memorial Council
Millstone
Source: http://examiner.gmnews.com/news/2010-0826/Letters/Sept_17_is_national_POWMIA_Recognition_Day.html
Recently Accounted-For POW/MIAs
The names listed here are U.S. military servicemembers who were once missing and are now accounted-for. Additional information may be seen by visiting the respective Vietnam, Korean War and WWII databases at www.dtic.mil/dpmo
• Sgt. John P. Bonnassiolle, U.S. Army Air Forces, 392nd Bombardment Group, was lost April 29, 1944, near Hannover, Germany. His remains were identified June 14, 2010.
• Cpl. Frank H. Smith, U.S. Army, 5th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was lost on July 25, 1951, in South
Korea while under enemy attack. His remains were identified on May 25, 2010.
* Capt. Clyde W. Campbell, USAF, 602nd Special Ops Sq., was lost on March 1, 1969 while flying his A-1J Skyraider
over targets in Houaphan Province, Laos. His remains were identified on May 18, 2010.
• 1st Lt. Paul G. Magers and Chief Warrant Officer Two Donald L. Wann, U.S. Army, Company D, 158th Aviation
Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, were lost June 1, 1971, while flying in an AH-1G Cobra helicopter over South Vietnam. Their remains were identified on March 22, 2010.
• 1st Sgt. George H. Humphrey, U.S. Marine Corps, 6th Marine Regiment, lost Sept. 15, 1918, during the first U.S.led offensive of World War I, under the command of Gen. John J. Pershing, near St. Mihiel, France. His remains were
identified on March 2, 2010.
• 1st Lt. Ray Fletcher, USAAF, lost May 10, 1044, while piloting a B-25C Mitchell medium bomber on a courier mission from Ajaccio, Corsica, to Ghisonaccia, Corsica. His aircraft encountered heavy storms and crashed on Mount
Cagna, near Giannuccio. he rugged terrain prevented Army Air Force personnel from reaching the crash site at the
time, and 1st Lt. Fletcher was listed as “Killed in Action - Not Recoverable. His remains were identified July 2010 and
funeral services were held on August 20, 2010. (Article follows below.)
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
World War II bomber pilot’s remains to
be buried in Essex Center
By Sam Hemingway, Free Press Staff Writer
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Fletcher was among five
people aboard the B25C plane on a courier
mission from Ajaccio to
Ghisonaccia, Corsica,
when it crashed May 10,
1944, into Mount Cagna,
also known as Punta di
Monaco. Fletcher turned
27 three days before the
fatal flight.
All five aboard the bomber died, but due to the
remote location of the
crash their remains were deemed unrecoverable by a
search team that visited the site four months later.
PAGE 6
“His remains were confirmed through an exclusion
process,” said Capt. Andrew Parris, the casualty assistance officer for the Massachusetts National Guard
headquarters in Milford, Mass. The review of what
turned out to be Fletcher’s remains was concluded last
month, when a now 90-year-old cousin of Fletcher’s
got a phone call from Parris at her home in Lanesboro,
Mass.
“We thought it was phony at first,” the cousin, Rhetta
Fletcher, said Friday, referring to the call she received
July 9. “The family’s all gone now. I’m the closest next
of kin, I guess.”
She said Ray Fletcher grew up in Westborough, Mass.,
with his parents, Ray and Nellie Fletcher, who she
thought were Vermonters by birth. She said Fletcher’s
parents moved to the Essex area after World War II.
One of 1st Lt. Fletcher’s cousins was Consuelo Bailey, a former Vermont lieutenant governor and the first
woman to be elected lieutenant governor in the country.
That designation remained unchallenged until 1989,
when a Corsican police officer contacted the U.S. Army
in Europe and told them human remains from the crash
had been found on the mountain.
Rhetta Fletcher described her cousin as a “reasonably
quiet” young man whom she saw occasionally. “Back in
those days, people did not visit as much as they do today,” she said. “People did not travel as far then.” She
said several family relatives live in Vermont.
“The gendarmerie also reported interviewing a Corsican resident who recalled seeing the aircraft crash
and subsequently led U.S. personnel to the site in
1944,” according to a report filed with the Joint POW/
MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base in
Hawaii.
Ray Fletcher’s remains are in Hawaii. Parris said they
will be flown to Chicago and then on to Albany, N.Y., on
Tuesday, where there will be a “plane-side ceremony.”
They will then be driven to Vermont for a funeral service at St. James Episcopal Church in Essex Junction.
“He also indicated that the 1944 search team had
found the burned remains of four individuals that were
placed in rock crevices at the crash site for burial,” the
report said. “The gendarmerie collected remains while
at the crash site.”
The officer’s disclosure set in motion a slow-moving
American investigation of the crash, involving visits
by investigators to the site in 1995 and again in 2005,
when a formal excavation of the crash area was carried
out.
DNA tests subsequently identified the remains of
the four other passengers on the plane, including an
American Red Cross nurse, but not Fletcher. Without
familial DNA material to work with, investigators had to
determine what remains were Fletcher’s by process of
elimination.
Afterward, Fletcher will be buried at the Mountain View
Cemetery in Essex Center with full military honors.
Source: www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100814/NEWS02/100813024/World-War-IIbomber-pilot-s-remains-to-be-buried-in-Essex-Center
VOLUME #10, ISSUE #3
ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
Recent Events
Rolling Thunder® 2010
Washington DC
May 28-31, 2010
Rolling Thunder® NH-1 members in Washington DC
n Rollins
PC. Justi
S
Saluting
TAPS
PAGE 7
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 8
Becky and Scott “Too Tall” Suchovsky
parking bikes.
905A PentagonParkingLot
Micheal R
eagan’s W
all of Hon
y to TAPS
On the wa
or (www.f
allenhero
s.org)
VOLUME #10, ISSUE #3
ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 9
Thunder Run IV
Manchester, NH
July 17, 2010
Jim Chisholm
Leo Thomas
Rich Deneka
Rolling T
hu
stuffing g nder® members
ive-away
bags
icheau
Kyrra Rob
Poker Run
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 10
1st Annual Rolling Thunder® Regional Picnic
Epping, NH
August 7, 2010
Dan Loper, Joe “Pep” Pepin, Leo
Thomas,
Rolling Thunder® members
Nicole Deneka and
Dan Loper
Becca Pepin and some Junior members pulling the 50/50 raffle winner with MA-1
President
Everyone enjoying the great food, music and friends.
VOLUME #10, ISSUE #3
ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 11
Rolling Thunder® ME-1 Buffet Dinner
August 14, 2010
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Rich Deneka, Joe “Pep” Pepin, Russell “Bulldog” Jolly, Jay Robicheau,
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Russell “Bulldog” Jolly, Rich Deneka
Russ
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 12
10th Annual Liberty Run
Manchester, NH
August 21, 2010
Safty talk before the ride.
Danny Kight Jr. and Guy manning the Quartermaster table.
Steve Cantelli and Terri Kidder
To mark th
e 10th An
niversary
Your Thou
of the Lib
ght” traditi
erty Run th
on becam
e “Penny
e “A Dime
for
for Your T
hought.”
Enjoying the great food and wonderful music.
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ROLLING THUNDER® NH CHAPTER 1
PAGE 13
POW/MIA Summary Statistics
Missing in Action (MIA)
Total MIA
World War II Korean War Cold War
Vietnam War Desert StormTotal
74,074
1,713
8,025
125
0
81,864
Data Last Updated 12 July 2010
Upcoming Events
1st Wednesday of the month: Monthly POW/MIA Vigil - Manchester NH, 7pm
Every Thursday: Weekly POW/MIA Vigil - Meredith NH, 7pm
September 17th: RT Mass Chpt. 1 will be doing a POW~MIA Flag Presentation at Union Hall on Colgate Road in
Roslindale (Boston), then heading out with a police escort to Gillette Stadium for a POW~MIA Flag Presentation at
345 pm
September 17th: NH Air National Guard POW/MIA Recognition Day at 1pm, POW/MIA Monument at Pease International Tradeport
September 18th: Kon Titki Reunion 2010 Fundraiser at Carosel Lounge, Salisbury Beach, MA from 2pm-1am
September 18th & 19th: NASCAR Weekend Fundraiser, anyone interested please contact Bill Downs at
[email protected]
September 26th: Fallen Member’s Run, Epping Legion, 10am
September 26th: Tilton Vets Ice Cream Social
October 5th: Monthy meeting
November 2nd: Monthly meeting
November 5th & 6th: Rolling Thunder National Conference
November 7th: Boscowen Cemetary Clean Up (Tentative)
November 13th: Patriotic Night (Sign up to bring a dish and get in free! A sign up sheet will go around at the October
meeting.)
Rolling Thunder® New Hampshire Chapter 1
PO Box 343
Epping NH 03042
Phone: 603 370-0691
Jeffrey “Doc” Stewart, President
[email protected]
Each and every individual donates his or her time because they believe in the issues at hand!