Motorcyclists to throttle up for POW/MIA cause

NORTH CHICAGO – More than 80 years after U.S. Army Pvt. James C. Loyd disappeared during a chaotic, nighttime gun battle in Italy, the World War II soldier was set for a solemn burial at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood this month.

Only through the painstaking efforts of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency were the 19-year-old’s remains – long buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy – exhumed and finally conclusively identified in 2024.

“He’s finally coming home,” retired U.S. Army Col. Wayne Kirkpatrick said May 5, just days before the May 9 arrival of Loyd’s remains at Midway Airport. “In the last 12 months, we’ve brought back six MIAs from Korea and World War II and that’s just Illinois.”

Repatriation stories such as Loyd’s keep the men and women of Rolling Thunder committed to reminding the public that more than 80,000 U.S. military men and women remain unaccounted for. To that end, Kirkpatrick will join thousands of motorcyclists riding in Rolling Thunder demonstration parades throughout the country this Memorial Day weekend.

“One of the things as a society that we’ve been quick to do is to send our young men and women into battle,” Kirkpatrick said. “We need to be as quick if not quicker to bring them home to their families.”

The Rolling Thunder Illinois Chapters 1 and 2 annual Mid-America Parade will start at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 25, at the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago.

The 54-mile ride is free and open to any motorcyclists. Donations will be accepted to go toward veteran causes and POW/MIA education efforts. Registration and staging will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the health care center, 3001 Green Bay Road.

Olney-based Rolling Thunder Illinois Chapter 3 is coordinating a ride downstate, said Kirkpatrick, who is board chairman for Chapter 2.

Featuring large POW/MIA and American flags fluttering from the backs of bikes, the northern Illinois ride will go from North Chicago to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, passing the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital along the way.

The planned route goes through Knollwood, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Northbrook, Glenview, Morton Grove, Niles, Norwood Park, Union Ridge, Dunning, Elmwood Park, Oak Park, River Forest, Maywood, Broadview, Westchester, Oakbrook Terrace, York, Glen Ellyn, Winfield and Wheaton.

The ride is scheduled rain or shine. At Cantigny, participants can visit the First Infantry Division Museum, which is free. There also will be an exclusive ride-participants-only showing of the 2009 film “Taking Chance.” The movie stars Kevin Bacon as a military escort accompanying the body of a 19-year-old Marine back to his Wyoming hometown.

“The movie shows how we honor these folks who are coming home,” said Kirkpatrick, noting that members of Rolling Thunder Chapters 1 and 2 escorted Loyd’s remains from Midway Airport to the Baskerville Funeral Home in Wilmington on May 9 and after services to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood for burial May 12.

“Every soldier must go into battle knowing that regardless of what happens, he or she will come home ... whatever it takes,” Kirkpatrick said. “Never forget.”

The Memorial Day weekend remembrance and awareness activities also include a candlelight vigil starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 24, at Fort Sheridan National Cemetery in Lake Bluff. All are welcome.