BRUNSWICK | A retired Air Force fighter pilot who often broke the sound barrier on combat missions is taking two months to ride a bicycle from the northern tip of Maine to Key West to honor those fallen and disabled in service and to thank their families.
Gary West stopped his 2,500-mile Patriot Honor Ride Wednesday at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center’s 9 /11 Memorial to ceremonially fold flags he’ll present to individual families in each of the 16 states he’ll pedal through.
Speaking to a small gathering of FLETC staff members, West said his ride has two purposes: “I just wanted to give something back to the families have experienced the loss of a loved one.”
He is also riding to raise money for Folds of Honor, an organization that provides scholarships to the family members of the dead and disabled.
All along the route he has stopped for ceremonies — sometimes once, sometimes two or three times a day — in which volunteers flew and folded the flags over and over.
“At Mile Zero on Oct. 1,’’ he said of the end of U.S. 1 and his ride in Key West, “we’ll package the flags and send them to families with a photo journal.”
West, who piloted 130 combat missions in F15 and F16 fighters in Iraq and Bosnia, said it is exciting to connect with the families as he has on his ride.
He noted that people are doing a lot for veterans but their families are often forgotten. Through its scholarships, Folds of Honor rescues the legacies of the children of those who died and were disabled on the battlefield, he said.
The flags are usually flown first before the folding ceremony, but rain prevented that Wednesday at FLETC.
The flags have been flown from the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor, he stopped at Ground Zero where the World Trade Center twin towers stood and had a private session in the room in Constitution Hall where the Constitution was signed, he said.
“We got to fold the flags on the dugout at Fenway [Park in Boston],’’ he said.
At Wednesday’s ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial, West and 15 others faced in other as they held flags held flat at the corners. As “The Star Spangled Banner” played, blasts from FLETC’s explosives training range resonated.
One staff member held the flag as another carefully folded it into a triangle. As West’s team finished, his partner held the flag to his chest as West saluted. Everyone stood quietly for the playing of “Taps.”
Jennifer McLain and Seth Newfang, both instructors from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, joined to fold a flag. The last name of Spec. Max S. Poyer was embroidered on the white header. Poyer is a disabled Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and was retired in 2010.
There is a flag dedicated to Air Force Maj. David Blair Faulkner, an instructor who was killed with his student in April 2008 when a T-38 crashed at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. Faulkner’s family lives in Georgia.
There is also one dedicated to Thomas A. Crowell, a special agent with Air Force Special Investigations, who died near Balad Air Base in Iraq when a roadside bomb destroyed the vehicle in which he was riding.
McLain called the flag-folding ceremony somber and humbling.
“Especially knowing one of our fallen agents is here,’’ she said of Crowell.
Since reaching Virginia, West said he has ridden mostly along U.S. 17, but will likely pick up U.S. 1 around Jacksonville in a couple of days. West, who is now the operations pastor at Chapel Springs Church in Bristow, Va., has averaged 50 miles a day on his ride.
Terry Dickson: (912) 264-0405
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