Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally: Why They Ride.

Memorial Day weekend is fast approaching, a time when we get together to remember the sacrifices of our service men and women, past and present.  Memorial Day weekend also marks the annual motorcycle pilgrimage to our nation’s capital.  Known as Rolling Thunder, the event now attracts literally hundreds of thousands of bikers from all over the world.  But for what?

From its inception in 1987, Rolling Thunder was created to bring attention to the MIA/POW issue.  Convinced that Americans were left behind following the Vietnam War, Rolling Thunder founders sought to carry the issue to the forefront.  Members of the Rolling Thunder caravan ride for Americans from all wars, unaccounted for, or worse yet, left behind.

Rolling Thunder rides for men like Scotty Greiling.

David "Scotty" Greiling graduated from Purdue University in 1957.

In March 1965, the U.S. launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained and highly targeted air war against North Vietnam.  The bombings would run through November 1968, but not without consequence.   Over 900 U.S. aircraft were downed in the campaign.  Naval aviator, David “Scotty” Greiling joined the fight in May 1968.

On July 24, 1968, with over 30 strike missions and three Air Medals to his credit, Greiling once again soared into the night skies.  He launched his A-7A Corsair from the carrier, USS America as the flight leader of a two-plane team.  Potential targets included activity along Route 22, a well-traveled feeder into the Ho Chi Minh Trail, North Vietnam’s main supply line.

The team scoured the country’s mountainous southern coastal region and spotted moving lights, thought to be enemy supply trucks.  In the lead, Greiling descended upon the target and radioed “rolling in.”

Greiling boards his A-7A for another bomb run over North Vietnam.

Greiling’s wingman, several miles behind, witnessed a large fireball emanate from the target area.  He believed it to be an explosion from an oil or gasoline truck.  He carried out his attack, then attempted to contact his flight leader, without success.  Electronic and visual searches likewise failed to find any trace of Commander Greiling or his A-7A aircraft.  The Navy made note of the burning area as a probable crash site and listed Greiling as Missing-In-Action (MIA).

In the summer of 1969, a full year after Greiling’s plane went down, an intelligence report rekindled hope.  A Polish merchant seaman had visited a bar in the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong.  Displayed on one of the club’s walls were 75-100 small photographs of captured American pilots, held as prisoners of war.  The names and photographs were taken from the aviators’ ID cards, carried on their persons.  In Vietnamese, each photo was labeled with the pilot’s name, plus the date and province in which he was shot down.  Before being stopped, the young sailor copied the data pertaining to 30 Americans.  Among those listed was David S. Greiling—“Guy-Link Day-Vit S. 24-7-68 Ha Tinh.”  With this information, the Navy switched Greiling’s status from MIA to POW.

The Greiling family viewed 1973’s release of American POWs, Operation Homecoming, with guarded optimism.  Of the 30 names, copied by the Polish seaman, 28 were set free that day.  The 29th was a confirmed “died while in captivity,” with the remains repatriated at a later date.  The 30th name belonged to Commander Greiling.  There was no word regarding Scotty.

Instead of folding, the Greiling family fought on, often at odds with what they perceived as government indifference to those still unaccounted for.  A January 1974, United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee memo conceded that Washington held few answers concerning the POW/MIA issue.   “No one has any good ideas about further action which could be taken.

“…There appears little likelihood that the North Vietnamese will do anything substantial in the near future to facilitate an accounting for our missing.  …There may be some prisoners in Laos but even this is doubtful.  Knowing this, the Administration must ask itself what price it should be willing to pay for such limited returns.”

This type of top-level apathy outraged the families of those possibly left behind, who had always considered their loved ones much more than “limited returns.”  “My family trusted our government very much,” Scotty’s sister, Gail Wickersham said.  “I always thought every person was important, but I soon learned that they weren’t.  …We’re not all important to them. …The government didn’t do their best for these men.  It shattered my faith in a lot of things.”

Scotty Greiling, kneeling on the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk, flew the A-4 on a fleet tour prior to the Vietnam War.

In November 1987, Greiling’s case, by that time almost 20 years-old, numbered among 224 priority narratives passed from General John Vessey to representatives of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV).  A Vietnamese team claimed to have investigated the crash site in April 1988 and concluded, “…the pilot was disintegrated along with the aircraft and the remains are not recoverable.”  The summary convinced few within the military or the Greiling family.

A subsequent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) evaluation took issue with the report.  “Most troubling is the Vietnamese failure to provide any reasonable explanation as to how a photo, which included Commander Greiling’s name, date and location of loss, could, 6 months later, end up on a bulletin board in Haiphong, about 300 kilometers from his loss location.  One cannot help but conclude that Commander Greiling or his remains came into Vietnamese custody in a situation which is inconsistent with what they now claim.”

In December 1988, a joint team investigated the probable crash site and discovered several small pieces of wreckage, but no human remains.  Oddly, a member of the Vietnamese delegation claimed to have found a portion of the pilot’s boot at that exact moment, handing a piece of stitched leather to suspicious Americans.  The report made note of U.S. skepticism.  “The American team members considered this chance find a little too coincidental… .”

The report closed by recommending an excavation of the crash site.  April 1990 and August 1991 excavations on Dong Nua Mountain offered little new evidence.  Although both produced more small pieces of wreckage, neither unearthed any biological remains.

At a loss, with no human evidence at the crash site, both governments concurred that Greiling’s body disintegrated upon impact.  In 1993, Greiling’s name was bumped from the remaining 135 priority “last known alive” (LKA) discrepancy cases because of “convincing evidence that death had occurred.”  In 1995, the Department of Defense concluded “that his (Greiling’s) remains are not recoverable.”  Official transmissions have since waned to a trickle.

Still, the question of the photo ID card continues to haunt the Greiling family.  How does a pilot’s body disintegrate to the point that no remains are recoverable, yet a piece of paper carried in that pilot’s pocket not only survive, but turn up in a bar some 300 kilometers away among those of a hundred other POWs?  “You always have hope,” Wickersham confessed.  “But after so many years, like Dad once said, we almost have faith that he’s dead, rather than think of the alternative.  …My brother was such a very nice person—patriotic, idealistic, always doing what he thought was right.  …We’d hate to think that he had to live through this, suffer all these years.”

For the Greilings and thousands of others like them, the POW/MIA issue is not a thing of the past, but lives in the present.  Rather than memorialize those still missing, Rolling Thunder demands a full accounting.  This Memorial Day, echoing the symbolic phrase scrolled across our nation’s black POW/MIA banner, tormented families, brothers-in-arms and half a million motorcycles will roar in unison, “You are not forgotten!”

One Response to “Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally: Why They Ride”

  1. David A. Johnson says:

    I am a retired submariner and Special Ops Navy Chief Petty Officer who has been wearing LCDR Greling’s POW bracelet for almost 30 years. I would love to correspond with someone in the family so I could share my love and prayers with them. I realize that this information is closely guarded, but if someone would be willing to be a go between, I would be eternally grateful.

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