GREENFIELD — The area chapter of Rolling Thunder, Inc. lived up to its name as dozens of motorcycles roared into downtown Sunday afternoon.
Members of the nonprofit organization, which advocates for U.S. prisoners of war and those missing in action, visited the Hancock County Veterans Park over Memorial Day weekend. It was their first of four stops to veterans parks in the area, where they honored Indiana service members killed in action and remembered those who remain unaccounted for. It also highlighted a weekend of memorial ceremonies in the county put on by veterans’ groups.
The ceremony in Greenfield included the laying of a wreath before the park’s large granite panel that recognizes POWs and MIAs.
More than 300 Hancock County residents have died in defense of the country since the Civil War.
“These men must never be forgotten for their ultimate sacrifice to this great nation,” said Mike Clark, president of Rolling Thunder, Inc. Indiana Chapter One and a retired member of the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve.
Rick Walker, who chaired the committee that created the Hancock County Veterans Park, referred to the bricks there bearing the fallen service members’ names.
“These were people that worked our fields; they worked our businesses; they walked the halls of our schools; they walked the streets of our town,” Walker said. “At some point, they ceased to do so. They were real people with a real, living, breathing presence in this world. They made a solemn commitment to protect our way of life and died in that pursuit.”
The ceremony also remembered Joseph Lawrence McNally, a Greenfield resident who remains unaccounted for after serving in the Korean War. The 25-year-old U.S. Army master sergeant was reported missing on Nov. 2, 1950, after Chinese Communist forces engaged American and South Korean units near Unsan, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains have yet to be identified among those returned to the U.S.
McNally’s nephew, Mike Arnold, and great-niece, Cindy Tucker, both of Greenfield, attended Sunday’s ceremony.
“Just the fact that somebody remembers them, I think that’s what you have to look at as a family,” Tucker told Rolling Thunder members. “We know that he may never come home, but just the fact that you guys ride for all those that don’t have a voice.”
Arnold and Tucker told the Daily Reporter that family members have contributed DNA to the Korean War Project, which works to identify battlefield remains, but there’s yet to be a match.
Nearly 7,600 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Department of Defense’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
“Something like this, it means a lot,” Tucker said. “These guys took time out of their day to ride.”
She knows it will also mean a lot to McNally’s daughter, Rita Southerland, who was 8 months old when her father was reported missing. Southerland lives in Buffalo, Wyoming, and would soon be receiving photos and video from the ceremony, Tucker said.
Arnold appreciated Rolling Thunder’s visit as well.
“These guys have poured out their life to honor these people,” he said. “And the people that just don’t think it’s a worthy cause, they’re just lost.”
It was the chapter’s inaugural Ride for Freedom in Indiana. In the past, it joined others from across the nation on a ride to Washington, D.C. for demonstrations over Memorial Day weekend. That ceased following the 2019 rally after more than three decades, however, with the organization citing harassment to supporters and sponsors as well as Pentagon officials’ lack of cooperation, The Washington Post reported.
Andrew Campbell, Richmond, complimented the Hancock County Veterans Park and reflected on his reason for joining the event as he and his fellow Rolling Thunder members walked back to their motorcycles.
“Veterans — they’re my brothers and sisters,” he said.
From there, they were off to the Veterans Garden of Memories in Knightstown, Henry County Memorial Park in New Castle and Wayne County Veterans Memorial Park in Richmond.
On Memorial Day on Monday morning, May 31, the Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard put on the community’s 64th annual ceremony honoring veterans’ sacrifices. The occasion, held near the cemetery’s Avenue of Flags honoring veterans, featured a gun salute from the honor guard, the presentation of wreaths and remarks from Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell.
In New Palestine an hour later, American Legion Post 182 held a ceremony at the Veterans Memorial at Sugar Creek Township Park.
