Welcome Home, Pvt. Brian Gilmore! : Lone Star Times

Welcome Home, Pvt. Brian Gilmore!

by BigJolly · 03/12/2007 1:02 pm

On Sunday, March 11, 2007, the Southeast Chapter of the Patriot Guard was thrilled to welcome Pvt. Brian Gilmore back to U.S. soil and escort him to his home in League City, TX.

It was a beautiful day on the coast as a friend and I rode to the gathering point at the Sheraton Hotel on JFK Blvd. It is always an incredible sight to turn into the parking lot and see all the bikes that have come out to support our troops. This was my first Welcome Home ride and it was great to see laughter and cheers rather than sadness and tears.

At the gathering, SE PGR captain JohnnyD displayed a flag donated to the chapter by a soldier currently serving in Iraq. The flag was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity verifying that it had flown in battle in Iraq on a Blackhawk helicopter and was given to the SE PGR in appreciation of their efforts on behalf of soldiers.

After the safety briefing, the mother of Pvt. Gilmore told us how much she appreciated us coming out to greet her son. She was truly thrilled that we were there. Also attending were the parents of Pfc. Nathaniel Given, for whom the guard rode on January 6, 2007. Gosh, that must have been hard for them to attend a welcome home ride when their son didn’t make it back. They were given the honor of leading the escort on their Harley. Truly cool.

At the airport, we staged in the far left lane directly in front of Terminal D. There was a little delay, so we had plenty of time to walk around and check out the bikes. My friend and I started in the middle, going opposite directions and counted the bikes. There were 110 total, 107 bikes and 3 trikes. In addition, we had the usual escort truck and this time the honor car that carried Pvt. Gilmore. What a sight! Everyone at the airport took notice, which was the intention. We need to honor our soldiers, especially when there is so much dissension about the task they have been given.

The ride to League City was 48 miles and took about an hour and a half. It is an awesome sight to see an escort of this length. People were gawking at us the entire route. Pulling into the neighborhood, the streets were lined with neighbors and flags lined Pvt. Gilmore’s home. A short reception was held and then the ride was over. Very, very good day. Hoorah!

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Comments

16 Responses to “Welcome Home, Pvt. Brian Gilmore!”

dowjones25k on March 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

glad you are safely home! now enjoy your life and you after being there should know what that means!

best wishes on your happy return
Shannon on March 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

Katfish said a good time was had by all, jolly.
southerntragedy on March 12th, 2007 at 1:39 pm

Welcome home PVT. Gilmore!

Thanks bigjolly and Katfish for all you do!
bigjolly on March 12th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

One of these rides, I’m going to meet Mr. Fish.
hamous on March 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

I want to personally thank Katfish and Bigjolly for their work with the Patriot Guard. The Patriot Guard escorted Pvt. Mark Graham home today. I can tell you it meant a lot to his family for the Patriot Guard to honor their son and brother.
Katfish on March 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Big J holeecrapola bubba! You were there and didn’t say howdee? (heck at least flip a ciggy butt at me and wave as I fly by yall while road guarding!)
bigjolly on March 12th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Mr. Fish, you gotta find me! I’m the big ugly guy!
whoathere on March 12th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

In related news, President Bush has decided to send more (8,200, in addition to his original claim of 21,500) of our boys over to Iraq to die for, um, what are they dying for again? Oh yeah, Iraqi freedom, or are they dying to stop terrorists? I can’t remember. Must be ’cause he’s cutting funding to education in order to fund another police state in the mideast. Oh, and the president cutting funding to agriculture programs to help fund the war.

I think I’m understanding the plan now. If we remove our domestic infrastructure and dumb down our population, the terrorists will pity us and not attack the US. It’s all so clear now.
hamous on March 12th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

There’s certainly at least one around that’s been “dumbed down”.
southerntragedy on March 12th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

#8 Whoathere:

This thread is dedicated to the Patriot Guard Riders. Any other troll bait you want to do should be related to this topic. Go to open threads to spout your other crap. Your NAZI photoshop in another thread shows who you really are.

This has been a public service announcement~
Neocon on March 12th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

Bigjolly and Katfish,

Thank you for what you do for our troops! My guy friend in Dallas is doing the same thing with Partriot Guard riders.

Pvt. Gilmore, thank you for your service and sacrifice for your Country. We appreciate all that you did and all of your brothers/sisters still serving. We know you miss them and want to be back to support them. Let us support them for you. You have done your share! Enjoy being home with your family!
Neocon on March 12th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

ST
#10

Freakin’ well said! I love you gal!
Katfish on March 13th, 2007 at 7:38 am

“The big ugly guy” aint much of a clue in the midst of 200 biker type folks yanno…….HEH
bigjolly on March 13th, 2007 at 8:52 am

Mr. Fish,
hefitz on March 13th, 2007 at 9:14 am

But we did have fun huh…Mr.Fish????

The welcome home missions are always the best.

“Riding With Respect”
Katfish on March 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

#15 yuuuuuuuuuuuuuBETCHA we did!

something about riding down medians and stopping traffic ‘illegally’ that gets the blood pumpin for this blogospherian!

BigJ - shoot me an email if you still have mine sir?