Thousands of veterans from the Korean War to Afghanistan rode motorcycles from the Pentagon to the National Mall this Sunday during an annual three-day event in Washington D.C. Some rode from as far away as California, others as close as the district. Many of Pennsylvania’s nearly 800,000 veterans also made their way.
Together, they took part in the 36th annual ride — previously Rolling Thunder, now called Rolling to Remember — to shed light on those left behind. They also discussed the issues they face in the reintegration process and the mental health crisis among veterans.
Honoring the fallen and missing
For many riders, Rolling to Remember is about honoring those fallen and those who never returned home.
Travis Haymore, U.S. Air Force Veteran Security Policeman, remembers the event’s first year – originally called Run to the Wall – as a gathering of 2,500 bikers “demanding” accountability for those who were missing and unaccounted. It was held Memorial Day weekend in 1988.
“We have failed,” Haymore said. “We have failed to make people educated as to why we’re here. Everybody thinks it’s a bike rally. It’s a parade, but it’s not, it’s a protest. It’s a protest so these people up here on Capitol Hill know why we’re here and we won’t tolerate our people being left behind.”
Travis Haymore, left, and Bruce Waters, right, pose for a portrait at the National Mall in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
According to Haymore, many families “don’t have closure” because their loved ones are missing or unaccounted for. The ride 36 years ago was solely focused on calling attention to the servicemen whose final fate remained uncertain. Some were prisoners of war. Others died in combat and their families were never given the opportunity to bury their loved ones.
The Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency reports more than 81,000 individuals who served have never returned home. Of those, 5,376 are from Pennsylvania.
“The event every year is to demand accountability — to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Haymore said. “I’ve been privileged to have attended, in the past 15 years, five repatriations here, where they have identified somebody. It’s good to see the families come together and get closure for that.”
The DOD Accounting Agency reports 79 individuals have been accounted for and identified in 2024. This includes 62 individuals from World War II, 15 from the Korean War, and two from the Vietnam War.
Kimberly Collins, the Virginia state coordinator for Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA), described attending Rolling to Remember as a “privilege” of remembering the fallen.
“It’s not about the AMVETS, it’s not about CMA, it’s not about Rolling Thunder — it is about the veterans,” Collins said. “It is about honoring those that aren’t home, remembering the fallen and remembering the mothers here that don’t know where their sons’ remains are.”
“We still have so many missing and unaccounted for,” Collins said. “The next generation will take up the mantle to pass the torch.”
Shedding light on veteran suicide
Rolling Thunder officially ended in 2019 after 31 years of riding. When AMVETS picked up the mantle in 2021, its focus expanded to include concerns around the crisis of veteran mental health and suicide.
For veterans like Mike Helvey, who served for 25 years in the Air Force, returning to life as a civilian was difficult and came with mental health concerns. For some veterans, mental health struggles manifest into suicide.
Kimberly Collins poses for a portrait at the Pentagon parking lot in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
“You’ve often done things and seen things that other people cannot relate to,” Helvey said. “A lot of vets, myself included, like to isolate after returning from war from particular places. The suicide rate is higher. The mental health crisis for vets has always existed.”
According to the 2023 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported the suicide rate for veterans was 71.8% greater than the rate for non-Veteran U.S. adults in 2021.
Rob Clark shared a similar remark to Helvey and said he saw suicides himself, and it never left his memory.
“[It’s] a huge amount of people committing suicide, because they’re not getting the proper mental health and mental health care that they need,” Clark said.
While veteran suicide persists as an issue, many are working toward solutions to tackle the problem. Natalie Cummings, the National President of AMVETS Riders, lost her son to suicide but has made it her mission to spread awareness around the topic.
“When we ride this weekend, I’ll be thinking of him and I’ll have his billfold in my pocket. We lose 22 veterans a day,” Cummings said. “That’s a huge part of the rally this year — to remember everybody that’s fallen and to help those here that are wounded.”
The number 22 comes from VA data that covers 21 states and spans 11 years, from 1999 to 2011. It’s the most cited data and the subject of a national campaign around veteran mental health and suicide awareness — #22aday.
The most recent data points to 245 veterans dying by suicide every two weeks. This is one veteran dying by suicide about every 82 minutes.
In Pennsylvania, where the fourth-most veterans reside, 246 veterans died by suicide in 2021, which marked the reversal of trends that have declined since 2006. In particular, Pennsylvania veterans’ most vulnerable groups were those aged 18 to 34 and 35 to 44.
Rob Clark poses for a portrait at the Pentagon parking lot in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
Two out of every three veteran suicides in Pennsylvania involved a firearm — a similar rate nationally. This is 20% more common than non-veteran suicides.
Transitioning to civilian life
For some veterans, stepping back on American soil can leave them unmoored. The familiar becomes unfamiliar, and reintegrating into civilian life can be difficult.
Marine Corps veteran Christopher Maldonado, of Cressona, Pennsylvania, discussed the challenges for veterans entering civilian life.
“A lot of times we come home and we don’t get decompressed the way we are supposed to,” said Maldonado. “So, when we try to enter society as a normal civilian, sometimes it just doesn’t work out. And it’s either you’re in hospital or you’re in jail, unfortunately.”
Mental health
With mental health often stigmatized, veterans can struggle to recognize their suffering and seek the help they need.
Jim, a U.S. Army Veteran who served in Vietnam, and Linda Botkin, wife and daughter of veterans, are no strangers to this. Jim did not want his last name used in the story.
Jim, who did not want his last name used in the story, holds out his forearm as he poses for a portrait at the National Mall in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
From being sent to Columbia, South America for operations against drug trafficking to losing friends in action (for whom he has three poppy tattoos), Jim has been impacted by a series of traumatic periods in his life.
“I definitely had PTSD, but I was totally in denial. I didn’t talk about it for 27 years. Little did I know at that time, I was doing more harm than good,” Jim said.
After coming to terms with his PTSD, Jim began counseling and was consistent for more than 20 years. He was asked in 2017 to be a mentor to the new veterans coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I was able to get five of those veterans to seek treatment, trying to relay my experiences and everything to them. They all were able to relate to what I was going through: the anger, the isolation, the hypervigilance.”
While Jim’s journey highlights personal growth and the importance of mentorship in addressing mental health issues, Botkin recognizes we are not where we need to be across the mental health diaspora.
Having a father who was gone several times a year, serving in the National Guard and meeting her future husband who was coming out of service at the time, she has secondhand experience on the issue.
“They were made promises by the government, and the government has not lived up to those promises to provide them with adequate care, particularly when it comes to mental health,” said Botkin. “Because in the military, it becomes a stigma, to admit that you have mental health problems and you lose your job.”
When post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was first introduced to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as its own diagnosis, it referenced the long-term disability experienced by trauma survivors, including sexual assault survivors and Vietnam veterans.
Bob Oliveri poses for a portrait at the Pentagon parking lot in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
According to the National Institute for Health, 700,000 Vietnam veterans — nearly one-quarter of those who served — were diagnosed with PTSD.
Today, 7% of veterans will develop PTSD at some point in their life. The condition is more common among female veterans at 13%, according to the National Center for PTSD.
A strain on families
While it’s now more common to discuss PTSD with veterans and other trauma survivors, the impact of trauma on relationships and families seems to fly under the radar for most.
Not only did this stress impact Jim’s mental health, it prevented him from building new relationships.
“I can’t be with anybody,” Jim said. “I have never been married. No kid, not even a girlfriend. I’m just too hard to live with. I even annoy myself and I make myself sleep on the couch.”
After spending time in Vietnam, Colorado, Columbia, and Sudan, Jim’s career ended after a wound from his years in Vietnam caught up to him. When he finally admitted to himself that he needed help, Jim found himself in PTSD counseling for 21 years.
George Barish, 76 years old, served in the Army from 1966 through 1968, and while he did not serve in Vietnam, his twin brother did.
Seeing the stress and his brother’s PTSD has been difficult for Barish and his family. Most people do not understand the things that veterans have gone through and have to live with, he said.
“Like they say, they lived that nightmare a lot of times at night, and it’s just a shame for anybody, not only Vietnam ‘vets,’ all the veterans that served in combat,” Barish said. “It’s terrible.”
David Neville poses with his bike for a portrait at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, on Friday, May 24, 2024.Jackson Ranger
Left behind
Troy Warshel, a former United States Marine and the president of Operation Enduring Warrior, served for 20 years. He struggled to find a new sense of identity upon returning home.
His work and events like Rolling to Remember work to establish a “surrogate family.” And, like many veterans shared over the weekend, there are many things only veterans understand.
“When you take the uniform off and step into the civilian world, that feeling of community and camaraderie and belonging to something does not exist,” said Warshel. “And, quite frankly, for me, it was a really difficult time.”
Veterans and veteran family members participating in this year’s ride conveyed a similar message — while they’re there to shed light on service members who never returned home, they too often feel left behind.
This reporting was completed by the Degler News Service in Washington DC and the News Lab at Penn State.
Contributing reporters include Louise Bennett, Mackenzie Bruns, Julie Caro, Aria Eichhof, Baxter Gimer, Mercedes Hamilton, Sadie Harvey, Hugh Kibera, Natalie Pearson, Cora Rodriguez and Milan Varia. Photojournalism by Jackson Ranger.
