Ride Report by Wayne Lutz
Photos by Sean Carpenter

On Monday, February 27, a phone call came in to the Warriors’ Watch Riders World Headquarters (my cellphone).

We received a request from Jeffrey Little, a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization “Phila911.Org.”  This Philadelphia organizaton had received permisson to acquire artifacts from the 9/11/2001 attack on the Pentagon. The stone from the crash site is to be incorporated into a new 9/11 memorial to be built in Philadelpia, the memorial to be called tentatively “Mending Liberty.”

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The request was to help Phila911 organize an expedition from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., to pick up these artifacts and bring them back to Philadelphia. Police vehicles, emergency vehicles, and WWR VEHICLES – bikes, and lots of them!

The notice was three days. Three days notice for a misson on a weekday morning, temperature 40 degrees in light rain and mist. The turnout on such short notice?  

120 riders.

Philadelphia Police Captain Kevin Hodges was in charge of the day’s event. We rallied outside the Round House Philadelphia in Center City and set out at 09:22 for the Pentagon.

The ride down 95 went well and without incident. When we got close to Wilimington, it was like driving through a gray wall – on this side gray skies and mist, on that side blue skies and sunshine. For the rest of the day the weather was better than we could have asked for – it was almost like Summer in Washington D.C.

At the destination I was ushered into a police van that then took us onto the grounds of the Pentagon. We were met by our contact who took us to the large pile of stone that had been deposited there after the disasterous attack on 9/11/01. We loaded several large and very heavy blocks into the van, as well as a lot of small pieces.  As a reward, each rider there was given a pice of Pentagon stone to take home for a keepsake, a hard reminder of that horrible day, and the resolute rebuilding that took place after.

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We were not there long – after the stone was loaded and everyone had a chance to get theirs, we mounted up and took off. The ride out of Washington DC was expertly guided by the Pentagon Police on motorcycles – they were almost as good as Philadelphia Highway Patrol riders. (Almost!)

And speaking of Philadelphia Highway Patrol – when the convoy reached Philadelphia on I-95 we were joined by a fire marshall’s vehicle and two Highway Patrol wheels who escorted us the rest of the way into the city.

We made Two Stops before returning to the starting point – the first at the Fireman’s Hall museum where we gave them a large block of stone to put on display, then to another police building, and finally back to the Round House. Another large block was brought into the Round House by Captain Hodges and myself, and will remain there on display. The rest of the stone will be incorporated into the memorial to be built.

Mission Accomplished, taking about 8 hours and 310 miles on the odometer.

We look forward to two more such rides – one to central Pennsylvania and one to New York.

Never Forget!