Ohio and the heartland

Funds were gone, our line of communications was cut. All hope was quickly vanishing. Than a miracle happened. News of the journey for the POWs was spreading faster than I could have imagined. People were talking about POWs and they were mad and indignant. The American public responded to the plight of our missing men as I had imagined they would. Homer Tutor, a father of one of the missing men came out to met us and added his son's story to the local newspaper article. I still have fond memories of what a great man he was and what he had to endure. Homer gave me a hunting knife that belonged to his son and asked that I carry it across the Country in his memory. I still have that knife in a display case along with other pins and tokens that people asked us to carry across America.

After a couple of days without any food to eat, Mike, Anne and John, quit and rode home. Mike's horse had injured a leg and couldn't continue. A veteran's group said that they would get the horse back to Massachusetts. Barry and I continued without the support van. Town halls were allowing us to use their copy machines to print more copies of the government reports we were distributing to the media and the public. People were pitching in to help. by the time we reached Cambridge there was a ground swell of support rising up. It was working. As we rode through towns we had the opportunity to speak to people on the streets and explain about the missing men. I had received information about a bill in congress that called for the full accounting of the men missing in Viet Nam. There were many people in Washington fighting also for these men. Several congressmen had offered a reward of one million dollars in gold to any Vietnamese that could smuggle a live American out of Viet Nam. There were also congressmen that refuted to support the bill. One such congressman represented the district we were now in.

On a local radio talk show, I informed the people of his district of his failure to support the bill and asked that they light up his switch board with phone calls. They did. If it was going to take stepping on political toes to get this congressman's attention, I was happy to do so. I wasn't a political person and I wasn't there to play political games. These people in Washington may at sometimes forget who is in really in charge of this Country, I still believed it is "We the People," if we don't surrender that right.

We rode along route 40 to New Concord. When we arrived in town people came out of the stores to cheer us on. We did the media interview, which were becoming a daily thing. We passed out copies of the reports and we were joined by a woman on a horse that wanted to ride with us for the day. That night Barry and I camped by a lake on the roadside. It was a hot summer. The sun woke me at daybreak. It was already 90 degrees. We hadn't had an opportunity to wash since a family invited us to spend the night at their house, a couple of days before. It was early and the lake looked so inviting. I took my clothes off and left them by the shore. I climbed on my horse and rode her into the lake, she was a good swimmer. As we were swimming in the lake, a car stopped near our camp and two women began fishing near my pile of clothes. Soon Sue, the woman that rode with us also drove in with some hamburgers she had bought us.

I looked at the three women and thought, OK, what do I do now? I continued to swim for a while and saw Barry pointing out my clothes to Sue. They were laughing. Finally I rode my horse out of the lake, got down and picked up my clothes and say good morning the the women fishing and went into some bushes to dress. Barry and Sue were still laughing when I came out. We sat down and eat the hamburgers. Sue gave me the directions to a TV station where I was to do a talk show at that day. Barry and I mounted our horses and Sue followed in her car. After a couple of hours of riding, Barry started to feel sick to his stomach. It was food poisoning. He asked how I felt. I said I felt fine. Sue took Barry to a hospital and I went to the TV station for the talk show. Well, wouldn't you know it, half way through the talk show my stomach started to turn over. I tried not to let on that there was anything wrong. I felt like I was turn green in living color. As we talked about the POWs, I was hoping not to be sick on camera. Luckily I was able to hold off being sick until after the show.

That night we camped in a pasture with some cows. We were able to turn the horse loose to roam. The horses enjoyed the freedom. In the morning the horse were kicking up their heels running around the pasture. We saddled up and the horse still wanted to run, so we were off at a gallop. Cars passed us waving and cheering.

Again veteran's group were helpping by calling ahead on our route and making arrangements for us. We were to meet with the governor of Ohio at the opening of the Ohio state fair and present him with the proclamation we carried from the governor of Massachusetts, in a few days. Towns were sending police cars out to escort us from town to town. People that passed us in their cars were pulling over to take pictures of us. I felt like we were a two man parade. People cheered us and wished us good luck, they said they were happy to see us take a stand for what was right.

This continued through the towns of Hebron and Whitehall, people inviting us to spend the night at their homes. It seem like the public wanted to participate in any way they could. They couldn't ride across America with us, but they wanted to be part of an America that took a stand for these missing men. If you can't ride with us, you can write letters to your representatives, you can talk to your friends and neighbors and make sure that these men aren't forgotten, I would tell them.

It was somewhere in this area that a man came up and asked me, "do you know that you are famous?" I had to stop and think about this for a moment. I wasn't out here to become "famous." I was still the kind of shy guy. I said thank you, but its the POWs that I'm trying to make famous. We are safety home, they are not.

The media too, was starting to focus on the horse trip and us instead of the POWs. I had to keep reminding the reporters that we were here on a matter of live or death for these men and to not waste space in their stories about the details of the horse trip, but stay focused on informing the public of this issue. I have taken the responsibility of telling the country of these men, who I am isn't important, I'm just the messenager. Homer and his son and every others son, husband, father, brother, that didn't come home were important.