Some people are absolutely phobic about the American flag touching the ground, and I guess that is all right.  Certainly, if a flag falls on the ground at a PGR mission and the person nearest to it doesn't move fast enough, the person second-nearest is probably running to get it.  We are all trained at a young age to respect the flag.

Perhaps that is why it is so moving when an American flag is laid across a soldier's casket.  We would never use the flag for a tablecloth, so is is unnerving to see it draped that way -- but only until you realize what it is for.  Our flag is never dipped in deference to another flag or other symbol as a matter of protocol.  Perhaps some politician will some day suggest that we should lower it as an obsequious gesture to communicate to the people of the world that we Americans do not think we are better than anyone else.  That politician would not be re-elected.

Indeed, the flag is lowered to half-staff only for an American hero's funeral.  Last weekend, Illinois buried Andrew Tobin, a soldier killed in a firefight in Afghanistan.  His plane arrived in Springfield on Saturday, his visitation was Sunday and his burial was Monday.  So flags were lowered all across Illinois all three days of the Labor Day weekend.  We did not do that for Walter Payton and we would not do that for the King of Prussia.  But we did it for Andrew.

So it was positively weird to see the American flag used as a cargo tarp in the rear of a pickup. 

Well, maybe not.  About three thousand absolutely innocent Americans were murdered in a political-religious act ten years ago.  We have since offered an even greater number in our efforts to change the world since then.

It wasn't a cargo tarp.  It was a casket flag.  The truck was carrying 1500 pounds of WTC steel with a little concrete still clinging to it.  Nearly all of the three thousand bodies were burned-up or crushed to dust or consumed by rats and nothing but a smear of DNA was recovered.  The truck was carrying the symbolic casket of some three thousand absolutely innocent American souls.

Only the heroes of United Flight 93 had a chance to fight back directly on that terrible day.  We now call its annivesary Patriot's Day.  There were some patriots who fought back indirectly and died.  The 343 firefighters who rushed into the two World Trade Center towers did not expect to fight terrorists, but they did expect to fight.  And they knew they might die in the fight.

343 NYC firemen who were not in those buildings before they were hit ran into them -- after they were hit. Because that is what firemen do.

Joe Campbell is president of Machinery & Welder Corporation.  Left of him is Mark Fox who went with Joe to NYC.  Right of Joe is Rob Curcio, SRC for Region One, Illinois Patriot Guard Riders.  Joe is addressing the PGRiders who arrived at the oasis near the Indiana/Illinois line just before we left for Wisconsin together.  He bought a new truck for the trip.

Joe and Mark learned that we would be meeting them when they were driving though Pennsylvania.  They were so pleased that they drove straight through and arrived a day early.  Then they waited a day for us to join them so they could finish their trip.

And we did.  Twelve bikes.  There had been only two days notice for Illinois and it was, after all,  a Thursday, so I thought that was a fair turnout.  Joe and Mark thought it was a great turnout.  We left. 

I was the third bike so I could photograph most of the escort from the front, though into the sun.  Two bikers of the Wind Warriors MC were ahead of me because one of them was flying a big flag.  It was our only big flag.

Our big-flag bike immediately followed the casket flag along I-294 around Chicago and on to the first weigh station in Wisconsin. 

That was when I got my first hint of what this would be.  I can only imagine what Joe and Mark thought. 

Hundreds.

Jim Unruh, SRC for SE Wisconsin, Patriot Guard Riders addressed us.  The PGR always draws many people with military affinity, but this crowd was mostly firemen.  Hundreds. 

We took some time. 

And then we left.  PGR first, then the truck, then firemen.  Far too many to photograph.  Our procession stretched miles along I-94.  

I was fourth bike in front of the truck.  The Wind Warriors had a place of honor immediately in front of the truck. 

They are Tori Browning and Sherri Redeker. 

When we finally exited the Interstate we reformed.  PGR big flags and firemen first, then the truck and then the hundreds of others.  When we dismounted at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center we looked like bikers:  leathered-up and wind-blown.  The only crisp uniform present that was not a fireman was Brian Shelton.  He joined two years after 9/11, so he knew what he was geting into.

Many of the guys facing the fire in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places were in high school when those four planes were hijacked and the course of history was changed.  And now they are changing it again. 

HEY!  You know who you are.  You killed 343 firemen.  You destroyed the two tallest buildings in our country.  You smashed into the Pentagon and you tried to crash into Washington D.C.

What did you think we were going to do?

story:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/129504963.html

video:  http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110908-girder-911,0,1188465.story

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