Fairmont, Paul Ramsbey

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The Red Bulls Welcome Home in Fairmont this past Tuesday went very smoothly thanks to excellent communication with SSGT Freeman of the Armory and Captain Brolsma of the Fairmont Police Department.

We were asked to assist with Road Guard duties for the 3 mile escort through town and set up our flag line at the Armory. The police had the route mapped out clearly marking which intersections they would be RG'ing and which they wanted us to cover. This worked out very well. I led the RG detail and the lead LEO vehicle would clear the intersection and then if there was no LEO there I would hold up either one or two fingers indicating how many RG's were needed. The two bikes behind me would move over to do RG and the next two would pull up behind me, etc. After the procession passed each RG they would fall into the back in front of the last LEO vehicle - leap frog effect.

I wanted to pass along that this worked well - all missions are different but this worked for us. I made it clear that we did not want MN PG members to be responsible for initially clearing any intersections and the LEO did this and we just fell in after them.

Excellent support by the community as the escort went through town with many flags and happy faces.

The majority of our members were on the flag line at the Armory for the fire trucks to drive through. Awesome! We then formed a large semi-circle perimeter for the brief Welcome Home Ceremony.

I talked with SSGT Freeman and Capt Brolsma afterwards and we all agreed the plan worked very well and we would do the same for the next wave of troops (100 instead of 18) early next week - exact date TBA.

Here is a link to some pictures taken by MN PG Member Dale Claussen:

Lastly, but very importantly - THANK YOU to the Rochester, Albert Lea and Mankato sectors for providing the interstate escort. They picked our Heroes up at the WI border and brought them all the way to Fairmont. Craig, George, Al, Ken and your support riders - WELL DONE! I can't speak for how this went for them except to know that it was very impressive and inspiring to see the bikes leading the bus down the exit ramp to the staging area - that is a feeling I know I will not forget - as well as everyone else who was the staging area. WELL DONE GUYS!

That is all for now - good luck with all the other Welcome Homes we have coming up!

Paul
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