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Resolve to Win member Carl Heerup (foreground) leads local VFW members and fellow Resolve to Win members
Waving flags to support Resolve to Win marchers are (from left) Ginny James, Catherine Massey, and Inga Creasy.
VFW Post 320 members (from left) Renee Parham, Ken Creasy and Junior Rose joke before marching along U.S. 1 from Massaponnax |
By CATHY DYSON
As word of the walkers spread along U.S. 1 yesterday, people came out of car dealerships and office buildings, salons and schools to see veterans walking and waving American flags.
Drivers in Hummers and Hondas, tow trucks and tractor-trailers honked at the group. Men in business suits gave a boisterous thumbs-up while other motorists grinned and nodded.
The marchers acknowledged each gesture.
"It's like a shot of adrenalin," said Don Blosser, a Spotsylvania County veteran who walked five miles yesterday. "It gets you going."
Blosser and other veterans with American Legion Post 320 in Spotsylvania joined the "Resolve to Win" campaign as it passed through the Fredericksburg area yesterday.
Retired Maj. Dennis McCool of Florida is leading the 16-day walk from South Carolina to Washington. He and others want to encourage Americans to support the troops--and to let the professional military do its job in Iraq.
McCool, who's 60, and two fellow retired soldiers started on March 1. One had to drop out because of severely blistered feet, and McCool was nursing shin splints and a swollen knee yesterday.
He packed ice on his legs each time the group took a break. Some of those driving the vehicles that accompanied the walkers tried to talk him into riding, but McCool wouldn't hear of it.
As he passed the Fredericksburg Armory--where a dozen soldiers came out to shake hands and thank the walkers--he said that if no pain meant no gain, "there was a lot of gaining going on."
But instead of focusing on his aching legs--which already covered more than 300 miles--McCool turned his attention to those around him.
Four members of Post 320's Honor Guard, ages 38 to 74, joined the walkers, which numbered about 10 yesterday.
Four Spotsylvania veterans from Korea and World War II rode behind them in a Lincoln Continental, and two members of the American Legion Riders escorted them on motorcycles.
The campaign has had similar support from veterans groups in several states, but the "Resolve to Win" marchers experienced a first yesterday.
As the group passed in front of James Monroe High School, two bagpipers joined them.
Fredericksburg residents Mike Yearsley and Ricardo Uribe played the Marine Corps hymn, along with other selections.
"Makes you feel proud, don't it?" asked Carl Smith, a North Carolina resident and Vietnam veteran who was accompanying the walkers. "We've had unbelievable support along the way, but this local group has been really good. Virginia is really a patriotic state."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
| THE END IS NEAR
The "Resolve to Win" campaign will end on Sunday, when the walkers reach the Lincoln Memorial. The group will have walked almost 400 miles. American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, one of the largest in the state, will host the group tomorrow night. Because the walkers will be in town--and it's St. Patrick's Day weekend and the birthday of the American Legion--the group plans a big party, then hopes to have several hundred people join the march to Washington. |
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The one thing that's disappointed the organizers of the "Resolve to Win" campaign is the lack of flags they've seen as they've walked from South Carolina. Flying an American flag |
