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jimd
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Quote jimd Replybullet Topic: Bikers pay tribute to fallen soldiers
    Posted: 14 March 2010 at 3:40pm

Around 15,000 bikers roared through a market town on Mothering Sunday to honour troops killed in Afghanistan in the biggest ride of its kind.

Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire has come to represent the nation in paying respect to fallen soldiers as they are repatriated back to the UK.

Hundreds line the high street in silence for each funeral cortege that passes through the town on its way from RAF Lyneham to the coroner in Oxford.

Sunday's crowds gathered along the High Street to watch over 10,000 motor bikers with about 5,000 pillion passengers pass the war memorial on route.

The ride, believed to the biggest of its kind, has raised more than £100,000 so far for the charity Afghan Heroes.

Wootton Bassett Mayor Steve Bucknell said: "The vast majority of the people of the town fully support what the bikers are doing today. Too many times the town has had to stand still in silence but today is all about noise and movement."

 
 
 

 
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halomonkey
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Quote halomonkey Replybullet Posted: 14 March 2010 at 7:11pm
I saw in some news story about a local whinging about 10,000 bikers descending on their village and how 'he' didn't want the noise and smell etc. Well, although i see his point I think he should look at the bigger picture. For years we , in the Forces, have felt unappreciated and unwanted, ignored by the very Government we serve and hated by many of those not part of the Forces Community, or even worse than the hatred those who who just didn't care. We have spent decades having to hide what we do for a living and being sneered at by many when they did know. We have dodged bullets in many places and brought home our injured and our dead without the blink of an eyelid from Joe Public.
 Wootton Basset changed all that and it is bound to have a knock on effect  on the village. People want to pay tribute to those who, without asking or reward, pay tribute to us. So it may be one day of noise to one man but to hundreds of thousands of us, it is a much needed show of appreciation and the knowledge that our Service and possibly our ultimate sacrifice is not for nothing.
 So I say thank you,not only those in Wootton Bassett or to those who travel there for repatriations but also to those bikers who turned up today to show their support for those who support us.


Edited by halomonkey - 14 March 2010 at 7:14pm


LIVING BY THE SOLID-C unlike some ;)
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ranroz
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Quote ranroz Replybullet Posted: 14 March 2010 at 9:57pm

Organisers of the 10,000-bike charity ride through Wootton Bassett this Sunday visited RAF Lyneham today to pay thanks to the air base on behalf of Afghan Heroes.

Organiser Julia Stevenson lead the group of bikers from the Cross Keys pub in Wootton Bassett to RAF Lyneham, and they were joined by some RAF personnel who were on the ride on Sunday.

The group met Station Commander Group Captain John Gladston to present a glass plaque to show the thanks Afghan Heroes feels for the role RAF Lyneham takes in repatriations.


The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make sure the other ba$%*rd dies for his.
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