Bikers roll in for annual Tri-State Gold Star Families Memorial Ride
By Toni Miles
Members of the Flags of Honor Escorts line up for the Tri-State Gold Star Families Memorial Ride’s South Mississippi stop.
They rolled in on their motorcycles, but don’t think for a moment that this group of bikers is taking issues that plague veterans and Gold Star families sitting down.
On Sunday, September 28, a group of bikers, including members of Flags of Honor Escorts, rolled into the Friendly City en route to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in Biloxi, where, the next day, a special ceremony was held to honor family and relatives of those who have lost a loved one in military service.
Local Gold Star Families were honored, including Long Beach Gold Star Mother Margaret Levens, whose son, SSgt. Donnie Levens, was one of eight Marines and two airmen killed in a helicopter crash in northern Dijbouti in 2006. It was all part of the Tri-State Gold Star Families Memorial Ride.
“We arrived in Long Beach on Sunday, September 28, which is National Gold Star Mothers’ and Families’ Day,” said David McElroy, founder of Flags of Honor Escorts and part of the Gold Star Families Memorial Ride. “We had just completed our opening ceremony at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.”
“We hurt with our Gold Star Families, but we will never know the pain they feel from losing a loved one in the service to this country,” McElroy said. “So, we ride and say their names, we tell their stories, for to live in the memory of those we leave behind is truly to never die.”
In honor of the families, members of the group laid wreaths at the service.
“We place two wreaths at each monument, a Gold Star Families Memorial Wreath and a POW-MIA Wreath [Prisoner of War – Missing in Action],” McElroy said. “These wreaths are handmade by Lea Ann McElroy and the Daughters of the American Revolution, Annandale Chapter.”
Members of the Levens family were honored at the Memorial Ride stop in South Mississippi.
Members of the SSgt. Donnie Levens American Legion Post 1995 and Eddie Blake VFW Post 3937, both based in Long Beach, hosted and fed the group while in town.
“Our mission statement is ‘We Recognize our Gold Star Families, We Remember their Fallen Heroes, and Honor Our Veterans,’” McElroy said.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast is just one of numerous stops on the Gold Star Families Memorial Ride each year.
“We host the Gold Star Families Memorial Ride in Florida every April and the Tri-State Gold Star Families Memorial Ride in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama in late September through early October each year,” McElroy said. “We visit each Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in Mississippi [where three monuments are located], Louisiana [also where three monuments are located], and Alabama [where two monuments are located]. There are currently eight monuments total in these states.
“We make stops at state-run Veterans’ Homes along these rides,” raising awareness about suicide and efforts to combat suicide, especially among veterans.
According to Mission Roll Call, the suicide rate among women veterans is ninety-two percent higher than that of non-veteran women. For male veterans, the rate is almost sixty percent higher.
“We had a very emotional ceremony in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on Tuesday, September 30, at the Suicide Awareness and Remembrance plaque and flag located at the Center for Member, Veterans, Service Members and Families on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi,” said McElroy. “We had several immediate family members of veterans and service members who succumbed to their unseen wounds.”
The memorial ride is put on by Flags of Honor Escorts based out of Jackson, Mississippi, each year in an effort to raise awareness and support for the Mission of the Woody Williams Foundation.
