I meant to post this a few months ago but lost it. Hey, better late than never.
For those who aren’t familiar with the group, the Patriot Guard Riders started as a group of bikers that travel to military funerals and protect the families from protesters, while also honoring the fallen. You can find out more at their website http://www.patriotguard.org/
To the Patriot Guard Riders,
On June 26th, my sister-in-law and her husband returned home from Iraq as part of the Ohio National Guard 16th Engineer Brigade. All 140-some members were coming home safely. They day after our anniversary, it was the best present my wife could ever get. As all the friends and family gathered at the church the ceremony was at, the emotions were overwhelming; joy, excitement, and major anticipations since they were already half an hour late.
A fire truck’s siren announced that the buses were in view. I couldn’t see much being crushed behind lots of other people (It’s only fair for my wife and in-laws to be in the front row) and as the bus came around I heard motorcycles ahead of them. I didn’t have time to ponder that as we were crushed even more by the soldiers piling out of the buses to find their families. There were hugs, kisses, tears, and more. My sis-in-law got to meet her nephew who had learned to crawl *and *walk while she was away. It wasn’t until 5, 10, 15, who know how many minutes later that I saw the motorcycles again, and it clicked that they belonged to several dozen of the Patriot Guard Riders. They were standing silently along the walkway to the doors to the church with flags in a kind of salute.
I knew who the Patriot Guard Riders were, but I was never kind to the idea of seeing them in person. It’s nothing against them, I just knew them for being at military funerals and I hope I never have the reason to go to one.
We had to sit through a coming home ceremony even though I’m pretty sure we all wanted to be out of there and back with our family. There were talks, pictures, and all that kind of stuff to recognize the services the Brigade had provided. Even during that the Patriot Guard Riders were in the back of the auditorium with their flags, just standing there like sentinels. Very rough sentinels, ones you really didn’t want to mess with. I saw them again as we were leaving the parking lot, back to standing guard at the doors and still saluting with their flags.
A few days later I browsed through their web site. I found that they had met the buses at the border, and escorted them over 100 miles to the waiting families. I bet most, if not all of them, didn’t know any of the soldiers they were leading home. Wow.
It was nice that the governor, mayor, and congressmen were at the homecoming. For some reason though the presence of the Riders, who had come for the sole reason of showing honor, respect, patriotism, (etc,) to not only the soldiers but also their families, meant even more to me. (No offense Mr. Governor and Mr. Mayor.) 
Thank you, Patriot Guard Riders, for all you have done and will continue to do for us, whether we realize we want you there or not. 
By the way, any ideas of what to get my wife for our next anniversary? Her little sister coming home is a hard one to beat.