- [Voiceover] The following program is a production of Pioneer Public Television.
This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota, on November 4th, 2008.
Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windham in southwestern Minnesota, shalomhillfarm.org.
The Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts offering luxury townhomes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections Spa, Big Splash Waterpark, and much more.
Alexandria Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event.
Explorealex.com, easy to get to, hard to leave.
(soft instrumental music) - Welcome to Postcards, I'm Dana Johnson.
Soldiers make the ultimate sacrifice.
Ride along as we take a look at the LTD Memorial Ride, and Tribute to the Troops.
Two motorcycle rides in Minnesota, that aim to make sure our soldiers are never forgotten.
Then we hear stories from country music artist Rockie Lynne, about his songs for soldiers, and his inspiration for starting Tribute to the Troops.
(soft instrumental music) - We started the event, was because in 2005, there was three of our people, Guard members, that were killed in Iraq, on February 21st, and actually we were in Iraq, Sergeant Hamann, Keely Hamann and I, and we were in Iraq the same time, we were like a hundred miles away from the guys when it happened and uh, it's just, this is a way that we can remember 'em.
- What inspired me to start this event, or to get involved with it was wanting to remember the guys, and make sure that their memory and their sacrifices weren't forgotten.
And just to make sure we reminded everybody that every day there's soldiers out there, making sacrifices that many people aren't willing to.
And that these guys made the ultimate sacrifice.
- [Ann] First Sergeant Turner, Chad, was the first one to get things going, there was just a couple of guys who sat in a room and said, "Wow, we should all get together and ride bikes, "you know, every time to remember these guys".
- I got involved in this two, three years ago, from Dave Walters, he happened to be one of the father-in-laws of Lhotka, Sergeant Lhotka that was killed in the war.
That's how we came to know Chad.
This guy Chad that puts this thing together is an amazing man, his devotion to his fallen buddy, the amount of time, effort, and work that he puts into this, and you see the dedication of Chad and his crew, you know, we have to be here, that's all there is to it.
We have to be here to help.
- LTD stands for Lhotka-Timmerman-Day, That's the three soldiers that were killed in Iraq at the same time.
In Baghdad, that's what started this whole ride.
(upbeat music) We wait for everybody to show up, and hopefully there's a lot of people.
- [Keely] This year we started in Appleton at the Chuck Brown Memorial Building at the Swift County Fairgrounds.
To start out, we have our registration, which is where people come to register for the ride.
- [Ann] We pre-register, make sure they have their driver's license, make sure they have their insurance.
- [Keely] And then we sell T-shirts and raffle tickets, and all those types of things.
We usually register for about two hours.
- [Ann] Wait for the people to get there until 9:30, and then we have our safety briefing, and then we take off on the ride.
("Amazing Grace" bagpipe music) (motorcycle engines rumbling) - [Keely] This year starting in Appleton, we took off in Appleton and headed to Montevideo.
(uplifting instrumental music) We basically just passed through Montevideo, and went to Marshall, Marshall was our first stop.
Marshall is a stop that we've added because Timmerman was from that area.
So while we didn't originally stop in Marshall, we have added that, to make sure that, you know, we remember that area.
Leaving Marshall, we go on to Madison, and various small towns along Highway 75, and in Madison we stop and eat lunch.
- [Ann] What we have at each stop is mostly just for people, for one, to get off their bike, 'cause a lot of people aren't used to riding, you know, a long time.
A lot of time when people do this, where they're riding it's not, you know, they don't ride like we do.
So we stop, let 'em get off their ride, get some water, have their, whatever they need, if they wanna get food and stuff, just a couple minutes.
It's usually about roughly 15-20 minutes to a half an hour.
It gives people time to talk to each other about things that either happened on the ride or happened before, or get to know each other, 'cause a lot of people, that's one thing that people that ride the ride have said is that they didn't know this person until they talked to 'em, and found out well, you know, they knew this person which knew this person so they really have the time to get there and talk to 'em and just get to know each other, people, and then take off and go to the next one.
- And then from Madison we take off and we head up to Morris.
Morris is our second-to-last stop, we stop there because that's where David Day was from.
They also have an armory that's a good location for a stop for us.
And then from Morris we head back to Appleton just straight down 59.
And then Appleton is basically where we've ended it every year, 'cause we have the assets available to do the stuff.
And Appleton is a big location of it, because that's where Jesse Lhotka was from.
Then once we arrive back in Appleton at the end of the day, the ride is complete, we have our supper meal, and then we have a drawing, and then we have a party.
(uplifting music) (police sirens) With Rockie Lynne, I know a lot of people really liked him, he had a lot of the patriotic support built into his shows, like you know, he's kind of a nice, nice added feature for the ride.
- I think that, I first became aware of the LTD ride, through Chad Turner, who is the gentleman who was the originator of the ride.
We were going to play, we were gonna be the entertainment.
But I have a tribute that I do to soldiers, written for soldiers and about people that go through those experiences, that we do all over the world.
♪ Thank you ♪ ♪ I wanna thank you ♪ ♪ From my heart ♪ ♪ There's a million others just like me ♪ ♪ Who want to do the same ♪ - So we were the right thing to book, but he's got a lot going on.
I don't think that Chad was aware exactly of what I did, and I wasn't as aware as I should have been, as to how great what he's doing is.
♪ Hamilton Minnesota sing ♪ ♪ Come on give me that ♪ - We do get a ton of riders from the area, but we also get some that come from all over the place, we get 'em from down in the Twin Cities, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, we've had some come from as far as Texas.
But we have consistently continued to grow in the number of bikes.
Our first year we maybe had 150, and now we're up to like, over 600.
My feelings the day of the ride are usually, a wide variety, it's very overwhelming to see how many people come out every year to small town, rural Minnesota, to support and remember those soldiers.
And it's also just, going down the road, seeing all the people in the tiny little towns that you never even think of, that are out there showing their support, waving flags.
- And it's unbelieveable, the people that will come out and just sit along the highway.
There's just about everyone has a U.S. flag, and they're waving it, I mean from little kids to older people it...
It um, it chokes you up through the whole ride.
- [Keely] Just knowing that those people are, are so supportive of the soldiers, and what we do to remember them, it's amazing to know that there's people out there like that.
- [Ann] I just hope that they realized what soldiers in the military, any branch, any place, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, you know, the past wars, what soldiers give up.
And the thing is, with soldiers, they're not asking for anything.
'Cause they're doing what they wanna do.
And they're showing their pride, and their respect and honor, by being in the military, that's all they want.
- [Rockie] That's three men from the same area in Minnesota.
They were great friends, all killed in the same incident.
But in three different vehicles in one day.
And that's what the LTD ride is about, is about making sure that Lhotka, Jason Timmerman, David Day, are remembered.
- [Keely] They were the first Minnesota soldiers killed and we don't mean to take away from anybody else that has lost their lives.
That's just where this started, was with those three.
So we honor them but we honor all the other soldiers and service members that have lost their lives as well.
- Now we join Rockie Lynne, a country music star who found his lifetime inspiration right here in Minnesota.
Rockie tells us about his patriotic songwriting, and how Tribute to the Troops has become an ongoing passion.
♪ They come from every corner of our country ♪ ♪ The cities, the mountains and the farms ♪ ♪ Modern day minute men and women ♪ ♪ Like our heroes from the past ♪ ♪ Whenever we need them ♪ ♪ All we have to do is ask ♪ - I've been writing songs since I was in an orphanage in North Carolina.
I was found, I was abandoned by my birth parents, and I grew up in a place called the Barium Springs Home for Children in Troutman, North Carolina.
And one of my earliest memories is those people taking us to church, and they would sing Bringing in the Sheaves, and they would sing How Great Thou Art, and I would always think, even as a little kid, I would think, I can write better words to that.
And I would make up my own words, so I've been writing songs as long as I can remember.
In 2005 I was offered the opportunity to go to Afghanistan and to Iraq, and sing for our soldiers.
To me, that was like the biggest honor ever, to be asked to go over there.
And I remembered being 18 years old, and being deployed into a foreign land, and I thought, I know what I'll do, I'll write songs for them, and instead of writing sad songs, I wrote mostly up-tempo songs.
Songs that tried to convey to these young men and women that the difference they're making not only in their country, but in their lives, is monumental.
So I wrote songs with titles like: ♪ Ain't America beautiful ♪ ♪ This place that we call home ♪ ♪ Give us your tired, your poor, ♪ ♪ Your yearning to be free forevermore ♪ ♪ Ain't America beautiful ♪ ♪ Ain't America beautiful ♪ To make them feel good about what they're doing, you know?
♪ Heroes come from small towns ♪ And: ♪ I'm proud to be a soldier ♪ - A bunch of up-tempo things that said to them, "We're proud of you, "you should be proud of yourself."
And then that was gonna be it.
We were gonna come back from Afghanistan and I was gonna make my next record and be George Strait.
And a funny thing happened, because those men that we played for, they sent it everywhere.
They called their aunts and their uncles and all these people called up and wanted to buy this music, and it wasn't written to sell, it was written to give away.
And that's where we started going to visit VA hospitals and hospice homes, so every town that I go to, every one, Susan, my manager sets up for me to go to the hospice house, and to go to the local VA hospital.
And going back to when we had our hit record, we were the opening act for Carrie Underwood, for the whole first tour, American Idol, big tour.
And we played on the Kenny Chesney Stadium thing.
And I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, that I get more of a feeling of something real sitting beside a bed of a guy that put his life on the line for our country than I ever would get out of that.
♪ Fly home ♪ ♪ my sweet angel ♪ ♪ From sea ♪ ♪ to shining sea ♪ ♪ Fly home ♪ ♪ my sweet angel ♪ ♪ Won't you fly ♪ ♪ On home ♪ ♪ To me ♪ Years and years ago, I was at a place called Breezy Point, Minnesota.
And this man named John Murray, that's where I met him, he came up and said, "What kinda music do ya'll play?"
And I said well we play country music.
But we just play stuff that I've written.
And he said, "I don't like country music, "and I don't know anything you've written."
(laughs) So he was gonna leave!
But he decided to stay and listen to a couple songs.
And then he came back every night after that.
And we became friends.
And every night I would sing that song.
Well, fast-forward 10 years, and we go to war.
And I'm still playin' nightclubs, this is before a record deal or anything like that.
And he calls me one day and he says, "Remember that song that you had?
"Called Home?"
and I said, sure.
He goes, "I'd like to use that as a class project, "to make a video."
And it had images of just soldier stuff, during the verse, you know?
18 called for duty.
And it was just nice stuff, and it went to mothers, hide your children.
It went to war images, not death and blood, not gore.
But like, you could see that it got darker, it changed.
And then in the chorus, fly home my sweet angel, he started showing pictures of Minnesota soldiers who had died in this war.
And it was to this day, the most powerful thing I've ever seen in my whole life, ever.
And my dear friend, Greg Schmidt happened to be with me that night, after I'd seen that video, and I said, we should do something.
And so we decided to go see those families in the video.
And that's how Tribute to the Troops got started.
♪ Fly on home to me ♪ - And the cool thing about Tribute is, what they've done Is created an organization that comes directly to the family we go to the home, we see where the soldier grew up.
We meet their family members, we hear stories about them that you know, just last a lifetime, so we really put a hand and feet approach to it.
And it puts a face on that soldier that's really touchable to us.
- How we got started with Tribute to the Troop is Dianna Beardsley, one of another Gold Star mom, called and asked if it would be all right if they paid a visit to us, and, you know, we thought well sure.
- The family visits are, can be so emotional, and they're so...
Emotional is the best word I can use for it.
They, those families have lost someone forever.
And they've lost them in the honor, in the name of the United States of America.
And so when we go to these visits, we not only are paying tribute to that lost soldier, but we are honoring that family for the sacrifice that they made.
- Well we felt the connection with Tribute to the Troops because of the heartwarming feeling that we got from them, they were sincere about it, you know they took the time out of their busy life to come and visit us.
They know a lot about Ryan, that was, you know, we knew, but Rockie Lynne knew about it, and he made it known to everybody there about Ryan.
And just the commitment, the passion we got from him, you know and then just the heartwarming hugs that we got from every rider that was here, there was over a hundred riders that day that were up here.
And I guess that's when I decided that I wanna be a part of this group.
Then we found out that there was other Gold Star parents on there, and that's where we really made the connection because now we could actually sit down one on one with other ones, other Gold Star parents to talk about, you know, our sons and daughters.
- We lost our son, Staff Sergeant William Beardsley, in 2007, and Tribute to the Troops came and visited us that September, and so from a family standpoint, it really gave us almost that bridge to continue on with our healing process and our grieving.
Most of the families will attest to this.
- I believe that Rockie Lynne brings a lot to this event.
For the main effect, he was a military personnel, he was in the United States Army.
He knows what it is to sacrifice.
You know just to hear his songs, you know, and he plays them from the heart, you know, it's not a recording for him, I've listened to his songs for over a year now, different concerts, I still get teary-eyed on some of 'em that he sings, because he plays it from the heart.
- The time that it really struck me that I wanted to do this more than I wanted to be George Strait, was the second time we went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
And I waited at the elevator and helped the guys in wheelchairs get to their seats.
And the elevator opened and there was a woman, pushing her son, and she just started to cry.
As soon as the door opened, and she pushes her son out, and she grabs me around the neck and she said, "I'm from St.
Cloud, Minnesota.
"And I'm so happy that I'm meeting you here.
"And not at my house."
She knew what we did.
And um, that's when I knew, it's important.
- For more information on Rockie Lynne, Tribute to the Troops, and the LTD Ride, go to our website and find out how you can help support your local soldiers.
See you again next time, on Postcards.
- [Voiceover] This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota, on November 4th, 2008.
Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windham in southwestern Minnesota, shalomhillfarm.org.
The Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts offering luxury townhomes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections Spa, Big Splash Waterpark, and much more.
Alexandria Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event.
Explorealex.com, easy to get to, hard to leave.
(soft instrumental music)