David Peterson, Army, Camp Ripley, MN 21 May 10

24 PGR members on 18 bikes gathered at the State Veterans Cemetery near Camp Ripley on May 21st to honor Army Engineer Lt. David Peterson. He served with the Army in the Korean War from 1951 through 1953. We stood the flag line for this Veteran to show our honor and respect to him and his family in gratitude for the sacrifices made for us.

We had some C130 flyovers along with a couple of helicopter flyovers during the ceremony. The Color Guard paid tribute with the Playing of the bagpipes, a presentation of the flag, rifle salute, and the playing of taps. The family wished to follow to the grave site after the formal ceremony so we set up a double flag line from the building to the grave-site to provide a corridor for the family to pass through. After the family arrived at the grave-site we stood down to allow the family to have privacy and solitude in their time of grief and so they would not feel they had to rush because of us standing in the flag-line nearby.

The family was so very appreciative and invited all of us to a beef barbeque nearby which I declined by indicating that we felt that this was an important family/friend time and we did not want to intrude on them. They understood and we then went to a post mission briefing nearby at the Canteen. We discussed the mission and how to do it better in the future and then we enjoyed post mission BSing

Jim Parent Brainerd ARC.