PGR - Petty Officer Second Class Hugh William Ryan

Pics are from top to bottom, click on a pic twice for full size, text for a pic is under the pic.

A link to Cliff's nice slide show:  http://tinyurl.com/3lkrytx

Link to Rich M nice slide show:  http://tinyurl.com/449hapw 

One of our Vietnam vets passed and PGR was asked to ride in honor and an honor it was!  

Sgtmaj is a 'Nam Vet and has deep respect for all that served, and volunteered to be our Ride Captain.  He asked for folks to ride in honor and over three dozen folks attended, thanks to all for being there.   We had many scoots and over one half dozen cages.  ALR Dist 13 was again well represented.

I didn't make the escort ride so decided to wait at the entrance of offer a salute for our hero.  The participants arrived in four groups and confused me, which is easy to do.  

First was a series of cages, one was Cliff with his flags flying.   Next came some motorcycles and I thought that was the group and followed them to the service location and Buzz waved me over and said, this isn't it... so back to the main entrance I went.

This is the procession!  Got my chance to offer an honor salute.

With all the attendance, the service was literally surrounded with flags, great service!  Thanks to the family for asking PGR to attend.

After the service, Doug/Sgtmaj was talking to the honor guard.   He said the family did not know of their services and responded in less than 48 hours and that is real good!  Thank you for your great show of respect!

A couple shots after the service....

We had scoots all the way down past the service. Great showing! 

PGR - Staff Sargent Wayne Keith Hepple Hollister

Pics are from top to bottom, text for a pic is under the pic, click on the pic twice to see it full size.

PGR was asked to escort a fallen veteran and it was a honor to be there, and thank you for asking!  

The mission:  The Patriot Guard Riders have been asked to form a Flag line and Escort Wayne Keith Heppler to his final resting place. Wayne was in the Air Force for 4 years and was a Staff Sargent.

This is unusual, as I did the same, 4 years USAF and made E-5 SSgt.  You must not miss a promotion cycle to do this. 

So I had to make this mission, and headed down 101 and what do I see south of Morgan Hill?  Buzz and Mike J,  so I Joined behind them.   

The fog was over south Gilroy, the normal trough, and I thought it would be cool and planned on a sweater under my mesh jacket, but Buzz was in short sleeves and I thought, why not.  It was not that bad, and got a lot warmer the east'er we went. 

OK, not our meet place, but Panak stopped here and everyone else did too.

Another shot of the members, IIRC, we had 10 scoots with one 2-up and one cage for a total of 12.  Great showing and thank you all for riding!!! 

While we were at the stop, a car stopped and asked if we were the riders, and it was Wayne's daughter.  She led us up to their home.

Getting parked and ready for the escort.

Wayne lived in a very pretty place, a nice overview and we were up a ways. Getting ready for the flag line to the car.

Panak did his normal great job and got us there safe and a good run.  From the rear of the escort.

Another shot.  Flag poles being put together center right.

The family gathering for the service.

A view from the front of the escort.

A successful mission, all safe, and God Bless family and friends during this sad time of passing.  Please celebrate the good life lived.

PGR - Ssgt Nicanor Amper IV Moffett Field Part 1 and 2

Pics are from top to bottom, click on a pic twice for full size, text for a pic is under the pic.....

Some great pics here, real good overall:  http://tinyurl.com/3d6g982

Cliff sent me his link to facebook, no text but he got some great photos of the GGNC prep, and  escort coming in...  It starts here...   http://tinyurl.com/3krnxb5

Chappi's facebook page where he has many mission pics...  This mission will be up soon:  http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=140266762701410

One of our finest has passed and PGR was asked to ride in honor, and an honor it was for all that attended.  Thank you ALL for riding!

I excused myself from the ride, we had a great showing and I've been having sleeping problems, bunch of mosquito bites driving me nuts, but I had to go to make sure there was a good turnout, and there was.

I did not feel that my attention and focus were up for a large group ride and safety comes first.  A small group would have been fine but thankfully, we did have a large group!

The police escort arrived, 8 bikes at this time, should be a safe run!  Our RC James B (Thank you for doing this!!!! We need more like you!!!) and Buzz ere chatting with them, planning the ride, I'd guess.  

Channel 7 had a reporter interviewing some of our regular riders.

Mark Z was the first.....

Bunker and Sgtmaj in the middle chatting....

I was just taking pics of the group, we had a couple dozen riders at least....

More scoots, and more were pulling in...  All  of these folks had arrived before the initial staging time!   Sweet Ruby on the far end.....

Cliff had his flags flying on his SUV.....

Bunker's turn at the podium.

Hope it was a safe journey for all.   I hope to make Part 2 on Monday.

Monday 07/18/2011

I knew this would be a large mission, so I went directly to GGNC.   The San Bruno  FD normally has a large ladder truck with flag out front and always looks nice. 

 

Initially there were 3 scoots and one more showed up.  The center one belongs to John and he was doing the organization for the reception at GGNC.  He arranged for some flags to be at the grave site and the rest at the gate to welcome the family.

Each mission is different, no different today.  It turns out there was a problem at GGNC and the scoots had to park in a different area than normal.   

We were to lead the group with the shuttle van and show folks where to park..  John went ahead of the shuttle, and I followed it in front of the hearse, thought a 3x5 flag waving was a good touch.   

The idea was that folks would see me turn off and by then John would be there waving folks to the parking area.  Worked fine!  Thank you John for all your work!

Cliff was there with his SUV and all his flags and they looked great!  He was taking pics so I thought I would too....

The procession coming in was VERY impressive!!  Many scoots and Police in the escort, and of course, I was watching instead of taking pictures, sorry!

We gave our welcome salute and took off with the shuttle to the parking area, My pic of the scoots coming in was blurred but you can see them lined up to park.  There had to be 100 scoots.

The area where the service was to be.  We had enough flags to completely circle the service.  The weather was nice and a breeze to flutter our flags.

Very good service with full military honors and lots of brass showed up.

After the ceremony it was time to leave and GGNC wanted to move quick, there must have been another service coming.  Slick John,center,  I followed him back to San Jose.

There was a service before ours and they had cleared out just before Ssgt Amper IV arrived.  The folks at GGNC were worried about an overlap and all the cars.


A great turnout and thanks to all that rode!!!!  Special thanks to James B for being the Ride Captain on this mission, we need more like him, step up if you can!

PGR - 8th annual Gold Star Dad Tom Ballard BBQ for son Ken

Pics are from top to bottom, click on a pic twice to see it full size, text for a pic is under the pic.

Tom Ballard had his 8th annual BBQ for fallen son Ken, and it was an honor to attend!!! 

He always reserves space in front of his home for PGR!  Thank you!!!!  Sgtmaj, Bunker and my scoot in front.

Carolann, Dianne and Doug.

Tom B giving me his split finger smile!!!   GBG  Found out that Tom and Carolann were USAF as well as I was.

Tom handed out some honorary remembrances of the event.  Proud to wear it!! Thank you my friend!

We even had a 53 Jeep visit us!  Nice ride and looked great!

A better shot, Tom was looking at my Sweet Ruby, I had his tape trapped under my front tire, fixed that!

Carolann trying to figure out how to fire that thang!!!  Glad she didn't as that barrel was big and aimed right at me!!!

Great day and great visit!   Thank you Tom!!!  Of course, he did give me the conditional "I think this is my last one",  we'll see......   Great visiting with folks!  Thanks!

PGR - William Spalinger, Vietnam Vet, Sunnyvale Ca

Pics are from top to bottom, not much text, click on a pic twice for full size...

Not many pics or comments, it was nice that Panak finished his welcome home and met us at the funeral home to welcome us with a lot of salutes!!  Great on Ya All!!!

The Minister is Don, one of our often riders and a Black Sheep member.  Great on Ya for doing this!

Got there a bit after 1030 and it turned out the departure time was going to be after 12, so we have some standing time....

Sgtmaj was the RC and did a great job!  He, Ric M, and Slickjohn did a great job of keeping the group together, thank you!

Getting ready for the departure, some of us were asked to be pall bearers, and folks stepped forward. 

The RC wanted to give us a post mission talk, trying to make sure all were OK with the mission.

More of the group,  the gent on the left was a family member of the Joseph Paul Bugna family and I was at that mission 6/26, thank your for riding!  

I have a few pics of that mission, but did not do a blog, if interested, I can send them...   I was just getting settled in from a lot of traveling and met the mission at Oak Hill....

Sgtmaj giving us his post mission briefing.  Thank you again for doing this!!!!