Bremerton Armed Forces Day Parade

My friend, Poet, invited me to ride with Combat Veterans International (CVI) Chapter 5 in the 63rd annual Bremerton Armed Forced Day Parade.  When I was with CVI I always enjoyed riding in this and the Veteran’s Day parade in Auburn.  Most of the Veteran motorcycle groups that have entries in the parade invite any and all veterans who ride to participate.  Some other veteran motorcycle groups also ride with the CVI entry.  The Brothers in Arms MC (BIA) has participated every year since CVI organized an entry in the  parade. 

I had arranged to meet Poet near Port Orchard so we could ride into Bremerton together.  It pretty much rained continuously from the time I left home at 7:00AM until we arrived at the staging area for the parade.  The parade officials want people to  start staging at 9:15 but CVI is almost always the last group in the parade.  By the time everyone gets staged, the parade starts and movement actually occurs at our position it is usually 11:00-11:30AM.  That leaves a lot of time to mix and mingle.  I hadn’t seen a lot of the folks here for almost three years.  My job had pretty much sucked the life out of me over that period.

We got moving about 11:30AM and the usual fun began.  The folks at the parade are always great and the veteran bikers do their best to give them a good show.  There was the occasional burnout,  revving of engines and honking of  horns.  We try to keep the smiles on and wave to all the people who are waving and cheering us on.  Bremerton really supports their veterans.  The good news was the rain let up and there was just a slight drizzle periodically as we ran through the parade route.

At the end of the parade route we pulled into a parking lot to say our good-byes.  As president of CVI Chapter 5, Poet thanked everyone for participating.  The presidents of the other CVI , BIA and Veterans of Foreign Wars chapters had ridden and at the front of the procession and they also thanked everyone.

The groups started heading out.  I rode back to Port Orchard and had lunch with a number of the CVI riders.  All the picture I took during the parade can be seen in This Gallery.

I am re-joining CVI as I have really missed the brotherhood and the activities.  I was stupid to have resigned in the first place.  Most veterans groups primary mission is helping other veterans, in the process they usually are also helping each other.  Somehow I got caught up in trivial BS and forgot the bigger picture.  It looks like I may have an opportunity to correct a big mistake on my part.  Thank God for CVI!