'Run For The Wall' coming to Gallup

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — For the first time in its 17-year history, the motorcyclists of Run for the Wall will be stopping in Gallup this year.

And according to Jackie McKinney, one of the event's local organizers, between 300 and 400 motorcycles and riders are on scheduled to arrive at Red Rock Park Thursday afternoon at 3:30.

He spoke by phone Tuesday from Ontario, Calif., where he was still busy registering riders who will be starting their cross-country trek Wednesday morning.

They're scheduled to finish their ride in Washington, D.C., May 27.

McKinney said the Run moved to Gallup this year because it had outgrown its former home at Veteran's Park in Window Rock.

"The last two years we pulled in, because of the number of motorcycles, we just didn't fit in there any more," he said.

McKinney noted another advantage of bringing the event here.

"We are now able to honor the veterans of Gallup and McKinley County" in a way the could not before, he said.

McKinney expects the caravan to hit Exit 16 on the west end of town by 3 p.m. The riders will be escorted by the Gallup Police Department from there along Route 66 to the park.

Once at the park, they'll be greeted by a helicopter fly-over from Albuquerque's Kirtland Air Force Base. A gourd dance, speeches and a Navajo taco dinner at 5:30 will follow.

The Run for the Wall began in 1989 when a pair of Vietnam veterans traveled from coast to coast giving interviews along the way to bring attention to the thousands of American soldiers still unaccounted for since the end of the war.

Since then, the event has taken on a significance beyond Vietnam.

Since America's engagement in Iraq, McKinney said, "we have seen the change in our country's attitude, that when we send our soldiers abroad, we want a commitment (from the government) that they will bring them back home."

The government did not do a good job of that during Vietnam, he said. Despite the ever-rising death toll in Iraq, he added, it's doing a better job now.

In recognition of America's most recent war, Thursday's schedule at Red Rock Park includes a moment to welcome home the recently returned soldiers of the Army National Guard's local 1116th Transportation Company.