The note to us was sent via our contact form and arrived in our inbox a couple of weeks ago. It stated simply:

“My son SPC Steven Buck will be coming home from 15 months in Iraq. He is arriving at the Trenton Rail Station 2:10 pm Sat. 7/26 with a surprise Luau at our home waiting for him. We would love if you could help us welcome him home and join us at the party.”

and that’s all it took to put the Warriors’ Watch Wheels in motion! Assigning the ride to New Jersey, Ron, he soon had the Yellow Ribbon Club, the New Jersey State Troopers on board. The show of support for a local hero continued with the mayor, the council members, local police, fire and rescue, friends and neighbors all coming out for Steve! In escorting SPC Buck home, we saw the safe return of yet another of our beloved “Dog Face Soldiers,” members of the distinguished and elite 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION.

Buck was to arrive at the train station in Trenton, New Jersy, for the final leg of his journey home. He was expecting his family to be there to drive him home from the strain station. What he WAS NOT expecting was a few dozen grizzled bikers, veterans and patriots standing in formation with American flags and shouting “Welcome home!” and cheering and applauding. Steve looked just a little dumbfounded to me, as if he couldn’t quite register that this was all for him.

Of course it was for him, because we love our freedom as Americans, and because we love our freedom, we love Steve just as much as we love every single warrior who makes the decision to sign up and sacrifice and risk ALL for our liberty. Steve is our hero, and if he didn’t know it then we hope he knows it now.

Steve’s mother had brought a uniform and we ushered him into the train station men’s room to change into it. The New Jersey State Troopers had arrived and were waiting without – two men who looked much like marines themselves in their bearing and spit-and-polish. We mounted up, bracketed the family vehicles in between the column of bikes, and with a trooper in the lead and one behind, we set off to home. Along the way we stopped at in a large shopping lot to unfurl our flags and to allow Steve to climb up onto the back of a motorcycle for the hero’s-spot for the rest of the ride home.

We knew when we were approaching the home when we began to see yellow ribbons tied to trees and posts in ever-increasing numbers – the Yellow Ribbon Club at work! We turned a corner and there at the end of the street were two huge ladder trucks flying a giant Old Glory for us to pass under and a very large crowd. We leaned on the horns and gunned the V-Twins and the crowd was ecstatic, finally after long anticipation able to welcome their home-town son home from war!

Spc Buck was the Man of the Hour, and no one deserves a distinction like that more than our American Warriors! Along with their families, men and women like Spc. Buck sacrifice much, suffer long, and risk all, so that you and I can live in comfort and security. We owe them, Soldiers like Spc. Steven Buck, literally everything. We honor their families, and we trust that the family of Steven Buck were able to happily luau well into the night!

WELCOME HOME SPC BUCK. WELCOME HOME TO THOSE WHO LOVE YOU, TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU BELONG!

Photos by StreetShooter. Full Album here