A 54-mile motorcycle ride was held on Sunday beginning in North Chicago and traveling to DuPage County with motorcyclists supporting veteran causes and Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.
The Rolling Thunder Illinois Chapters 1 and 2 Annual mid-America Parade was held Sunday morning, beginning at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago.
The 54-mile ride was free and open to any motorcyclist, with donations being accepted to go toward veteran causes and Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) education efforts.
Featuring large POW/MIA and American flags fluttering from the backs of bikes, the northern Illinois ride traveled from North Chicago to Cantigny Park in Wheaton while passing the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital along the way.
The route went through Knollwood, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Northbrook, Glenview, Morton Grove, Niles, Norwood Park, Union Ridge, Dunning, Elmwood Park, Oak Park, River Forest, Maywood, Broadview, Westchester, Oakbrook Terrace, York, Glen Ellyn, Winfield and Wheaton.
Participants were able to visit the First Infantry Division Museum after arriving at Cantigny and there was also a showing of the 2009 film “Taking Chance.”
The movie stars Kevin Bacon as a military escort accompanying the body of a 19-year-old Marine back to his Wyoming hometown.
The Memorial Day weekend remembrance and awareness activities also included a candlelight vigil at Fort Sheridan National Cemetery in Lake Bluff on Saturday evening.
Rolling Thunder says its efforts are to remind the public that more than 80,000 other U.S. military men and women remain unaccounted for.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Wayne Kirkpatrick joined the thousands of motorcyclists riding in Rolling Thunder Demonstration Parades throughout the country for the Memorial Day weekend.
“One of the things as a society that we’ve been quick to do is to send our young men and women into battle,” Kirkpatrick said. “We need to be as quick if not quicker to bring them home to their families.”
“Every soldier must go into battle knowing that, regardless of what happens, he or she will come home … whatever it takes,” Kirkpatrick said. “Never forget.”