On Saturday August 17 more than 100 motorcyclists conducted a Ride to Remember in order to raise awareness of POW/MIA issues throughout the state.
Organized by the Montana POW/MIA Awareness Association, the ride is now in its sixth year and follows Montana Highway 287 from Helena to West Yellowstone.
“We’ll have pretty much people from all the branches,” said Layne “Fast Layne” Cope, president of Montana POW/MIA Awareness Association. “We’ll probably have some Canadian riders with us and there’s a lot of them aren’t former military that just ride to support the cause.”
Fifty-three Montanans that have been designated as prisoners of war or missing in action have yet to return home.
Along the Ride to Remember, POW/MIA flags were placed and 53 bikers carried dog tags to honor those service members.
Ride to Remember kicked off in Memorial Park in Helena at 9:30 a.m., then traveled through Townsend and Ennis before arriving in West Yellowstone.
The Montana POW/MIA Awareness Association was established by a group of Montana based veterans dedicated to the memory of the more than 83,000 POW/MIA personnel and focusing on the 53 personnel missing from Montana.
More information about the Montana POW/MIA Awareness Association can be found on their website at
http://mtridetoremember.org/
.
