BROOKINGS – The end of America’s overseas wars have always brought bittersweet news to those on the home front. 

The sweet news is that those soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in service and those who died and whose remains have been recovered will be coming home. The bitter news is that some will not: those listed as prisoners of war or missing in action. 

But those POWs and MIAs are not forgotten. And Rolling Thunder – an American advocacy group that pursues accountability for the POWs and MIAs of all our nation’s wars – ensures they never will be.

“Our primary mission is to educate and promote the POW/MIA issue to the public and our government to have the fullest accounting of our missing in action and POWs – from all the wars,” explained Bob Foster, chairman of the board of Rolling Thunder, Chapter 2, of Brookings. The only other chapter in South Dakota is No. 1 in Sioux Falls, from which the Brookings chapter spun off.

“When we left Vietnam a lot of people knew there were prisoners of war that weren’t accounted for,” said Bryan Gums, immediate past-president of Chapter 2. “There were some live sightings claimed even after we pulled out.

“Most of the people that started Rolling Thunder were Vietnam veterans. They wanted accounting for those people. People had seen them alive in captivity and there’s no accounting for them. We’ve lost all track of them.”

Following its genesis in 1987, founded by four non-com Vietnam veterans, Rolling Thunder grew and made its presence known when about 2,500 motorcyclists rolled into Washington, D.C., during Memorial Day weekend in 1988. The thunderous noise of those motorcycles in the nation’s capital was reminiscent of the “Operation Rolling Thunder” relentless bombing of North Vietnam in 1965.

The organization’s name – “Rolling Thunder” – was copyrighted in 1990. And future attendance at D.C. “Ride for Freedom” rallies increased enormously with estimated attendance of: 200,000 in May 2001; 350,000 in May 2008; 500,000 in May 2018; and 900,000 in May 2019, the final one.

Today there are about 90 Rolling Thunder chapters nationwide. Chapter 2 has about 40 members; all activities and expenditures go through an eight-member board of directors and must be approved before they’re taken to the membership.

Two misconceptions corrected 

Foster, an Army veteran; Gums, a former Marine; and fellow veterans and also past presidents, Leo Sterling, Navy and Army National Guard, and Roger Hansen, Army, met recently with The Brookings Register to talk about some of the activities Rolling Thunder chapters undertake to fulfill their mission.

While the four veterans are also motorcyclists, there are two misconceptions about Rolling Thunder membership they want to clarify: You don’t have to own a motorcycle and you don’t have to be a veteran.

The four veterans agreed that closure for the families of those still unaccounted for is a major piece of what Rolling Thunder is all about.

By the numbers, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is “an agency within the United States Department of Defense whose mission is to recover missing personnel who are listed as Prisoners of War, or Missing in Action, from all past wars and conflicts and from countries around the world.”

As of Oct. 11, 2019, the DPAA’s total missing numbers, from World War I (3,343), World War II (72,652), Korea (7,608), Vietnam (1,587), Cold War (126) and other conflicts (6), are 85,322. Included in those numbers are 357 South Dakotans: World War II (315), Korea (35) and Vietnam (7).

“We’ve got all these numbers,” Hansen said. “The one thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of the missing are in that Pacific area theater of operations. You take from Korea down through Vietnam and in that area, probably 75 percent of the missing are in that area.”

The most recent South Dakotan to be accounted for and announced by the DPAA was Army Pfc. Donald E. Mangan of Elkton, killed during World War II. A member of the 28th Infantry Division, he was reported as MIA “on Sept. 17, 1944, after his unit was attacked by enemy forces near Wettlingen, Germany. His remains could not be recovered after the attack.” 

Each chapter unique

While all the chapters nationwide are governed by the same bylaws and constitution, each chapter has its unique identifying patch and some autonomy for any projects it undertakes. 

“Each chapter is responsible for having a ‘pet project,’” Foster explained. The project Chapter 2 has been involved with is the 727/DAV (Disabled American Veterans) Charity Run started in 2010. It takes place every Labor Day weekend.

He added that Chapter 2 “wanted to get some advertising,” so it has “a mobile trailer with a billboard on each side” that can be used in local parades.

Also in the Brookings County area, Rolling Thunder No. 2 has made its presence known with black granite memorial benches, embossed with the POW/MIA symbol. They can be found in Estelline, Arlington, South Dakota State University, Flandreau, De Smet, Milbank, Volga, Bruce and Aurora.

On the list for future benches as funding becomes available are the Brookings County Courthouse grounds and the veterans home in Hot Springs.

In other community activities, the Chapter helped raise donations for rebuilding the old Highway 77 sign; helped sponsor a rest stop at the annual Black Hills Vets March that takes place every fall; supported the SDSU Air Force POW/MIA Memorial Run, “a relay from Sioux Falls all the way to the (Brookings County Veterans) Memorial here, carrying the POW/MIA flag. We’ve escorted them through town.”

Members also put up POW/MIA flags on Main Avenue for celebrations such as Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day.  

Finally, they made a chain with the names of those 357 missing South Dakotans; it was used to help decorate the Christmas Tree at the state capitol in Pierre. They’re planning to do it again this Christmas.

Membership in Chapter 2 is $30 a year. For additional information, log on to www.rollingthunderchap2sd.com.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.