Welcome Home - Raymond Scheeler

Ray Scheeler Welcome Home, June 19, 2009

Background:

This is a completed mission report for the mission to honor Raymond Scheeler returning from Iraq after serving his third tour in Iraq. Ray had returned to his mothers place on Wednesday and was not told there would be a welcome home for him. We felt like he deserved the same welcome as if he had returned with his entire unit.

This was a two part mission as we are doing both a flag line at the final destination and an escort along the way for the family van that they were on.

The event started at Sartell Mn with units from the MN Patriot Guard joining in to escort the van from the mother’s home and continuing to the final welcome at Grey Eagle.

Staging and Briefing:

We picked up members in Randall MN and proceeded to Little Falls where we picked up 8 more members. We then headed to Sartell for the final staging and picked up two more members on the way thru Royalton. This was great. We arrived in Sartell at the main staging area and more members kept showing up.

We did a briefing, welcomed new members, said the Pledge of Allegiance and said a prayer for the success of our mission and for this brave soldier. The RC told everyone how we would conduct the mission and answered any questions. We had several people from other sectors including bikes from as far as 150 miles on a day that was a perfect riding day.

For the flag-line at the final destination we staged right at the location of the flag-line.

For the final count we had 26 bikes and about 34 members show up and for the flag-line we had 23 bikes.

Escort Mission:

No traffic control or LEO escort had been lined up due to the fact that we would be on the freeway and then on less traveled roads all the way. There were only a couple of places where we needed road guards. We had safe going all the way to the end of the mission.

We set up to go to Ray’s mom’s home and when we arrived it was obvious Ray and his family were surprised and overwhelmed. We went up and hugged Ray and welcomed him home. After some bantering for a few minutes we saddled up to escort Ray to his official welcome home.

This was a particularly special escort because Ray’s mom rode on Greg Studer’s bike behind Greg. We wondered if she would make it one piece but it turned out ok. Greg did a good job leading the escort.

As we arrived at the final destination the rest of Ray’s family and friends were there to really make him feel like he was home at last.

Flag-line Mission:

After arriving at the final destination we set up a flag-line and first Ray came right thru the line to the applause and cheers of all of us. Then Ray came thru again with his immediate family. It was a great experience and we were all glad to be there. Starr gave the kids(3 daughters and 1 nephew) teddy bears and hot wheel cars.

After a brief ceremony, during which the PGR were generously thanked for the welcome we stayed and mingled with the family and friends and gained a couple of new members in the process including Ray’s mom. We had a chance to ask them questions and even answer some. What a great opportunity to let them know how much we support them.

After being dismissed many of us rode together as a group over to the Little Falls VFW for the debriefing.

Debriefing:

Debriefing was short but gave us a chance to talk about how to do this even better next time. It also gave the escort and flag-line members a free round as the VFW would not let us pay. A fitting end to a great mission.

James Parent RCIC
Brainerd ARC