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                 Rolling Thunder Ready to Roll Into Washington

   by VOA News

   The [1]Rolling Thunder caravan of motorcycles rolls into the U.S.
   capital Sunday.

   The annual event, first organized in 1988, is billed as a tribute to
   prisoners of war and Americans missing in action.

   Ray Manzo, a former U.S. Marine Corps corporal, is one of the men
   credited for organizing the event. A letter from Manzo, published in
   Outlaw Biker magazine in 1987, called for riders to descend on
   Washington the Sunday before Memorial Day.

   Nearly 3,000 riders came for that first ride.

   The organization said the event has now grown to more than 1 million
   riders and spectators combined. A half-million motorcycles are expected
   to rumble Sunday afternoon from the Pentagon to the Vietnam War
   Memorial for a rally in an event the group calls a[2] Ride for Freedom.

   ''The group's mission has grown alongside the ride. The organization
   lobbied for the [3]Missing Service Personnel Act of 1993, which
   prohibits the U.S. Defense Department from declaring a service member
   killed in action without substantial evidence.

   It has also established a nonprofit organization that provides cash aid
   to veterans' families.

   Over the years, Rolling Thunder has become a more politicized group
   frustrated with Washington lawmakers and the Obama administration.

   "I don't think anyone in Washington, D.C., really cares about
   investigating the live POWs that the government knows were left
   behind," writes Sgt. Artie Muller, Rolling Thunder's national executive
   director, and Joseph Bean, the group's national president, in a letter
   posted on the [4]Rolling Thunder website.

   The letter, dated December 2015, also says, "This administration keeps
   getting us deeper and deeper in the war against Islam. ... Why are we
   not demanding reparation payments from the Islam countries for the
   expense of what these wars cost the America taxpayers. ...

   "We better pray for a new administration in the 2016 election that will
   follow the Constitution of the United States and worry about America,
   our people and our troops first," the letter continues.

   ''Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is set to
   speak at Sunday's rally.

   Motorcycle enthusiasts have frequently attended Trump campaign rallies
   to show their support for the candidate they believe is different from
   career politicians they accuse of degrading the military and ignoring
   veterans.

   This despite Trump's remarks last year that disparaged one of America's
   most famous prisoners of war: Senator John McCain.

   At a political event last July when asked about McCain, who was
   described by the questioner as a "war hero," Trump responded, "He's not
   a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that
   weren't captured, OK?"

   McCain, a U.S. Navy pilot, was a prisoner of war for nearly six years
   in Vietnam after being shot down flying a mission.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [5]http://www.voanews.com/content/rolling-thunder-washington-vietnam-me
   morial/3350590.html

References

   1. http://www.rollingthunder1.com/
   2. http://media.wix.com/ugd/41f266_29c19093338b49fe9ea606b3186f1299.pdf
   3. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-103hr291ih/content-detail.html
   4. http://rollingthunder1.com/
   5. http://www.voanews.com/content/rolling-thunder-washington-vietnam-memorial/3350590.html