hello, everyone, welcome to rolling thunder 32. we want to thank everyone for being here. thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your service, and for those never heard it, welcome home. my name is nikki mendocino. this is my 25th year at rolling thunder. we are very proud and excited to get this started. everybody.n, thank you all again for coming. we appreciate it. mentioned, we are about to start our formal show, our presentation and demonstration during is what it is all about this evening. for those that are participating, if you can, will you just please silence your phone? once again, my name is stewart, i am the regional liaison for rolling thunder incorporated. 21st demonstration. we as an organization have been doing this for 32 years, and we would like to get going. nikki: all right, we're going to start with our invitation, so joincan have cap len tom us on the stage. >> let us pray. dear heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity, lord, to live in the country where we have the freedom to express ourselves by riding through our nation's capital, making a lot of noise them and the fact that our country has failed to bring home our living p.o.w.'s, they have failed to bring home our missing in action. we pray for each and every one, we pray for our goldstar family members, that you bless them as well, give them peace and comfort as only you can. we pray for all of those who are still alive as field of you's or as p.o.w.'s or m.i.a.'s. we pray that you bless this country is only you can. ask the things of you, and together we say amen. >> amen. doc: thank you, chaplain. , if you areat can physically able, and it is safe ?o do so, what you please rise is my daughter and privilege to introduce to you -- good. honor and privilege to introduce to you -- good. i was giving him time to get up the stairs. /afghanistan veteran, currently serving in the united states legal agency, ladies and gentlemen, colonel andross martin. [applause] i'm going to stand behind you. that is good. col. martin: present the colors. please join my son, andross mar tone, and i come up with the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, as to the republic, for which it god,s, one nation, under indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [cheers & applause] >> ♪ o say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ [cheers and applause] >> do you want to hold them tight? ted? ted? isies and gentlemen, this solling thunder national's head of the board with our mission statement. rolling thunder incorporated mission statement. is to publicize the pow issue, to educate the public that many american visitors of war were left behind after past wars and to help direct the past and the future of veterans from being left behind should they become prisoners of war from missing in action. committed toe helping disabled veterans. each and every individual donates his room or time because they believe in the issue at hand. colonel, whenever you are ready. >> retire the colors! >> good job. thank you, colonel. please be seated or relax. i am going to take a moment here. i want to set the tone for our speaker, and this is what i am going to ask you to do. and as i look out into the audience, many of you have a the facial in experience, and that is ok. i am right here with you. -- whereon to you was were you in 1987? 1987. where were you? a few out there that were not born yet. that is ok, but for the rest of us, 1987, i was in the united states army. ia medic. talk to you about a gentleman who was a vietnam veterans and and somerville, new jersey, talking to one of his good friends, also a veteran, and they were discussing the prisoners of war, missing in action issue, and it was a little personal. it was personal, because they were there. wasas personal, because it their friends, their bodies, their brothers in arms, and a new for an fact that there were prisoners of war left behind. i.a.'swere m. unaccounted for, and as you can imagine, it got a little heated in their conversation. i happen to know this individual. i am sure there were a few explicit discussions. but most people would just continue to commiserate and continued to complain. this individual, he did not. , rallyded to take action the troops, and in 1988, he took a group of people on their harley davidson's down constitution avenue here in washington, d.c., and his purpose was to remind uncle sam that, hello, you are accountable. you left my brothers behind. my friends behind. they were not coming home. i know. i was there. i am here to remind you. and from that day forward, every year for the last 32 years, rolling thunder incorporated has been advocating and educating the public about missing in action. ladies and gentlemen, it is my ther to introduce to you rolling thunder incorporated, sergeant artie muller. [cheers & applause] sgt. muller: thank you, and welcome to rolling thunder 32! [cheers & applause] they say we don't count no more, but i would say veterans.e million thank you, as god bless all of you for being there. welcome home to all of our veterans around here, men and women. a special welcome home to my vietnam sisters and brothers that served in vietnam. welcomeuld like to say home to iraq and afghanistan veterans. they have a rough one over there. welcome all brothers and sisters. we have been coming here for 32 to straighten out a few things, when we first came down here, and our bikes came down, we also came down on a bus. some of us marched, some of us rode bikes. within a few years, we change that, and we dropped the march, and we decided we are only going to do bikes. more power to have the motorcycles here, to let the why we are nknow here, to wake them up! through the years some of we have gotten a lot of legislation passed, and some of the legislation is because of all of you being here all the time, writing or calling, faxing your senators. we got legislation passed, and we brought home just village and the others six sec. wilkie: -- p.o.w.'s from the first gulf war. from legislation you've got past. years ago, and russia, a doctor in examining some patients asylum, and there was one particular man in there who had been there for almost 50 years. he was on gary and. they were russian. hungarian.t gar they were russian. he did not understand them, and they did not understand him, so they said let's put him in a nuthouse. isil someone finally said man is not crazy, he is hunga rian, and nobody understands him. he finally went home. that is not a pretty picture. when you fight for your country. whoe are a lot of people file for america, the look of the korean memorial, on the left side, there is a wall, and it tells you all of the countries that were fighting with us and korea. life was pretty much over, but you know what? he finally, thank god! -- he went home. and that is the way it should be for everybody. i do not care if you're american, you are japanese, or poland,re from hungary, or anywhere else, if they fought in a war, and they were captured, people should any of insane hey, -- ante up and say, end let them go home, let's this issue of lives left b behind. our government knows that they left behind live p.o.w.'s in the ii,nam war, and world war they left them behind in vietnam. when are they going to wake up? and tell their children, their fathers that were left behind in the p.o.w.'s. pelosi like to see nancy and her express work on the p.o.w. issue is that a b ullshitting and aggravating the president of the united states, who is doing a fantastic job. [cheers & applause] man in the: that white house is working for us. that is our house! he understands that. what the politicians do not like is he has money, and they cannot buy him. he is not a politician, so they cannot do it that way. and he walked out of the meeting with nancy pelosi, not because he had a has the fit, like she said, but because he is tired of putting up with her bullshit. we have to look at her family background. i have to look at it myself. let's investigate nancy pelosi and throw her the hell out of congress. the president wants to see what we are going to do. we're going to have a meeting. meanwhile, be safe. remember what our country is country, and that is the number one thing. and if you believe that at our flag, the world hates us because we live free, we enjoy it, and they hate us for it, but to hell with them! they will never take our freedom away. god bless the united states of america, god bless the president of the united states, and god bless all of you. nikki thank you, hartie, thank you for fighting for 32 years. , we have rolling thunder incorporated national president jobe bean. joe: ah, that is a hard thing to follow when he gets up here and gets wound up. right, we wipe him of a lot. i am here to talk about rolling thunder charities are we started a 501(c)(3) to help veterans pay their bills if they are having a hard time. we send paperwork into the thece, artie gets through paperwork, and we decided through the board whether to help them pay a mortgage, put food on the table, give their kids a christmas party, whatever it takes. from may of last year to this year, we have helped 192 veterans, troops and their families. we spent over $265,000 doing that. we cannot do it all ourselves, so we get a lot of supporters, and i would like to bring some of them up here, because, again, we cannot do it without them. is the harley corporation down there? giant foods. aetna insurance. it is all on harley. but we have good major supporters, and they help us out. god bless everyone here, and like artie says, let's give them all hell anyway, and i cannot wait to get in trump's office. [laughs] [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is jason knoll, and i am the director of sales for harley-davidson motor company in the midwest. it is my pleasure and honor to be with you here today, alongside my colleagues from harley-davidson motor company, members of the rolling thunder organization, and the many men, women, and families who have given the ultimate sacrifice, losing a loved one, for serving in the u.s. military so that we can have freedom. we would also like to honor today the gold star mothers. these are incredibly strong who put a lot of time into their communities and this nation. we thank you for your efforts, dedication, and commitment not just today but all year long. thank you, ladies. [applause] jason: today, we are deeply honored and humbled to ride with you on this special and important event. harley davidson's roots date back and run as deep and far as 1916 with our support to the u.s. military, and since that time, we have never wavered in supporting our u.s. military and first responders. , ands the world, we ride everywhere we go, we hear s, veterans, rider and those who have bravely served us so that we can have the freedom that is fueled by the love and passion of motorcycling. ds amonge common threa all of us. we share a passion and bond of personal freedom. it is a powerful thing. you can see it and feel it and hear it today in our nation's capital, and our partnership with the rolling thunder organization, we have had the opportunity to watch this event grow and a mall since 2001,in te served veterans in need and honored the pows and mia soldiers while raising awareness on thisating the public important event. like to recognize the members of the rolling thunder organization across the country and especially the board members. what's give them a round of applause. [applause] >> rolling thunder has a proud history. wet is most impressive is look back at the very first ride , the one thing that has not changed and has not been denied is the purpose. let's not forget that building this iss and support why we want to continue to support the rolling thunder organization. thank you for the opportunity to be here today and thank you for and -- -- [applause] >> it gives me great pleasure to introduce the secretary of veterans affairs robert wilkie. before coming to the va he was undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. to thenal advisor secretary and deputy secretary of defense on total force management. as undersecretary of defense he served james mattis. as assistant secretary of defense he served robert gates and donald rumsfeld. he was special assistant to the president for national security affairs and the senior director of the national security council. currently he is an officer in the united states air force reserve and previously served in the navy reserve with the joint forces intelligence command naval special warfare group and the office of marriage intelligence. the v.a. secretary mr. robert wilkie. >> thank you and thank you to the gold star mothers who have made more than one sacrifice for this country. i was privileged to address the tax organization last night. i quoted an australian prime minister who said 40 years ago, what would it be like for the there were world if not this country called the united states of america? were not this giant country prepared to make so many sacrifices for peace and freedom across the grove -- globe. that's what i think of when i think of gold star mothers. want to talk about vietnam seen through the eyes of the child. histtle boy who watched father go off to the second tour in southeast asia. before he was 70 got word that his father had been badly wounded. so badly wounded he spent an entire year at an army hospital in hawaii. home he weighed half of what he did when he went. he tried to recover from those wounds and didn't in such a way that he returned the all-american division 82nd airborne division. as a senior officer in the 1970's he was not allowed to wear his uniform off posts. i visited the panel of the vietnam wall. was the name of master sergeant danny cicero johnson, united states air force. he was 36. there was a father, husband and air force medic. he was from hardin county, north carolina. 1975 he was looking after hundreds of orphans from saigon. president of the united states, gerald ford, order the orphanse to rescue 2000 -- the north vietnamese master sergeant johnson is caring for them. his c5 crash in a rice paddy outside of the airport. dayhildren perished that and 50 members of the united states air force perished with them. a father and a friend who is lost but his life was a testament to the spirit of america that we see today. i was honored to visit that wall wasears after the event sergeant johnson's daughter. the america was asleep in 1970's something stirred in the thesands of people here, shameful treatment of our warriors went against everything that was taught by the man that was looking down on us today in his second inaugural address when he paid to end the scourge of four. us strive to finish the work whore in to care for him has borne the battle and his widow and orphan. in the 1970's it began to change. most american veterans still thought not enough attention was being paid to the sacrifices they had made. youears ago thousands of roared through the nation's capital to remind america of the charge given by the 16th president. the very name rolling thunder conjured up memories of courage and sacrifice during the vietnam war. it soon became synonymous with healing a nation. todrawing our attention pows, mias, those who came back , you helped unite a divided nation and make my father's generation hold. legacy wasour transferred to generations after. andre still a nation at war even when the war ends not every soldier sailor air man or marine will come home. over 82,000 or still missing. vietnam, 125 from the say onr, and i want to behalf of the president that he is here with you in spirit and as he said if he had anything to do with it this will not be the last ride of rolling thunder. [applause] with a bit of a prayer and a story. we are about to celebrate and honor the 75th anniversary of america's assault on hitler's forces in europe. i great general and a man who commanded the 82nd airborne division in battle in north africa and sicily and planned -- he wason of europe tossing on his cut as the all-american division of streaming eagles was about to launch their midnight assault. people down the old testament and moved to the book of joshua. they started reading about the greatest battle the hebrew people had ever fought. he asked again for the charge job had -- got had given to joshua that night. i will not fail the or forsake me. with theld reagan presidential medal of freedom. heroes come when they are needed and great men step forward when courage seems in short supply. message,d with that the men and women of rolling thunder. failede not forsaken or the thousands and thousands of your fellow citizens whose sacrifices insured that the people of this nation sleep very soundly at night. trump andof president your department of veterans affairs god bless you on this memorial day and thank you on behalf of a grateful nation. god bless you. [applause] ♪ >> for the last 30 years john mchenry gets on his motorcycle weeks before rolling thunder and it rides to the largest rolling thunder chapter in the nation to have freedom come through. free and he does to shine that until every pow or mias accounted for. it is called the wave of read him. -- freedom. ♪ ♪ this flame will always shine to guide the way home until everyone is accounted. ♪ >> rolling thunder, god bless all of you. >> rocky, thank you. ladies and gentlemen hand for rocky. speaker from the national alliance of families. rose. welcome nicolette >> thank you. this might be the last time i get to do this. please bear with me and smiled. today is the 32nd ride for freedom and yesterday was the national alliance of families 30th annual meeting. for pows andights mias started decades ago. the alliance was founded by family members from a variety of wars who are dissatisfied by information they were not receiving from their government. we were founded with three goals. one, the return of any live pows. two, the truthful and accurate andunting of our missing the recovery and scientific identification of remains or a reasonable explanation as to why the return, recovery or full accounting is impossible. these goals are not just ours. goals the founders and our membership expect our government to have. the pow mia issue is not just history. it is about our present and our future. war continues and personnel still get captured. many people don't believe the vietnam war including our presence allows that yet nearly 600 americans were lost in that country. many of them are what we call last known alive. because of the secrecy in the the-- of the war in laos communists were not at the paris peace agreement. the last known alive pows held in laos were not part of any negotiations. i stand before you today not only to represent the alliance but also the families who are still waiting for their loved ones. stand here today from a uncle who was shot down over north vietnam. i stand here today for my great cousin lost on the uss oklahoma. i speak the name of a warrant andcer and a tech sergeant another sergeant al lawson laos. i speak the names of sergeant lewis, captain harry moore and major sam logan. all lost from the korean war. i will close with a goal of. member the names i spoke and the words i'm about to speak. i am alive. i am still here still captive, still waiting. , i am not sighting another american spotted report. i breathed, i hope, ia. i long and hunger for my freedom. i'm still here and still captive, still waiting. remains i am whole and i cling to the memories of you. i am still captive and still waiting and my voice cannot be heard. my pain is mine alone. and me and feel my agony see me in your children's faces. i am still captive and waiting period the guard does not have the key, you do. only you can free me or death. voices can sing me home or in your silence i am not here, i'm still captive. forgotten i am not even a memory. thank you all for being here and thank you for keeping the promise to never forget and hopefully we will see you sometime next year. thank you, god bless. [applause] >> thank you, nicolette rose. we love you. >> he beat me up here and i'm honored to introduce my great friend. >> thank you, nikki. ♪ >> thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen that was gordon painter. round of applause. i would like a round of applause for rocky lynn. , thank you, those are our gold performers today. we want to acknowledge them. we greatly appreciate their participation and support. our next speaker, this gentle man is in his third term. he is representing 700,000 citizens including 30,000 veterans. he is a senator from washington dc. please welcome senator brown. [applause] thanks, everybody. thanks for the great people that came through the rain. it is a great honor to be here with people like goldstar moms who have sacrificed so much for our nation. and god bless lee greenwood for writing that song. i rode in with already miller. and some of the other veterans. i have been coming to rolling thunder for 15 years now. i am here to say two things. the first thing is, thank you for your service area we all enjoy the freedom that we have because of the sacrifices you made. we often say that freedom isn't forgett we should never to thank the people that paid for it. thank you so much. i am here to say we cannot let this end. after 32 years. the mission has yet to be completed. i don't mean that we still have thousands unaccounted for. i mean that there are other things that veterans -- that are important to veterans in america that we need to address. one out of every three homeless people is a veteran. what is that? there should be no such thing as a homeless veteran. 125,000 homeless veterans. we have ptsd on the rise and we have veterans waiting months or the bao get treatment in hospitals. in d.c. we have an unemployment rate for veterans which is 1.5 times the national average. it should be a 10th of the national average. until these things are complete we need to continue to ride. is weggest issue for me have 30,000 veterans in the district of columbia who fought for america and put their lives and have no voting representation in either house of commons. i am elected like every other united states senator but i'm not allowed to serve the people who elected me and this has to stop. 30,000 of yourhe fellow veterans who do not have a voice, because veterans voices matter. war we hadvietnam the highest per capita casualty rate of any jurisdiction here in the district of columbia. we have 35 congressional medal of honor recipients. the man that wrote the national anthem was a d.c. soldier named lieutenant francis scott key. the man that wrote cats was a congressional medal of honor -- taps was a congressional medal of honor recipient. mother jones, i don't take anything away from the way this organization started. to makedebt of honor sure we have an answer for every mia and the eu we cannot rest until that happens. not only to bring closure to their families but so that we say to everybody that wears the uniform we will never leave you in a jail cell or unmarked grave. no matter what it takes we will be there to make sure that you come back to the country that you stood up for. it is time for us to stand up to them. mother jones, the great labor organizers said pray for the dead but fight like hell for the living. a couple of guys that have patches on that say no one left behind. >> our next speaker is a retired general. >> our wounded warriors are home, around of was for them. thank you very much. >> god bless you. thank you chairman and god bless the wounded warriors. thank you for being here. i'm going to talk about we never leave anybody behind. that's why it is a special honor for me to be here today and address the 31st rolling thunder on this memorial day as we honor those that have fallen and to thank the members of rolling thunder and the goldstar family members. leadership,ageous for this group being formed by to seek fullpeople accountability for prisoners of war missing in action to include world war ii, korea and vietnam. when i was listening to already i thought he took my speech. , he did. is that already said it all but i'm going to add a few rolling thunder has been instrumental in passing legislation, the missing personnel service act of 1993 that has a service member cannot be listed as killed in action without substantial evidence. this is important because the government has been saying moving from mia to killed in action without that evidence wipes away the problem. that has been changed because of what rolling thunder has done. they have kept hope alive for the families that have mias. to givernment attempts us answers. frankly the government has not been doing their job. the first rolling thunder when the chairman asked where were you in 1980 evan, i was in europe about to move to alaska. andmember being in germany reading about rolling thunder and what it started. that was an inspiration to us all over the world. you all have done an incredible job in carrying out for these 32 years for those p.o.w. and mia families. for those who have come home through your efforts that are back up here, many in arlington national cemetery is their final resting place. we did leave people behind. we left them behind in world war americans were seized from german pow camps by the russians and they put them in and thebor camps roosevelt and truman administrations did not do anything about it. because we had espionage agents in the u.s. government by the and thererry hopkins were others. we wanted to have good relationships with the russians and we let 23,500 americans perish in slave camps. it is too late for them now. the deep state existed then as it does today. after the korean war we left in north korean, chinese and russian slave labor camps. was trying to create a different environments and they sacrificed our men and the american public never knew these facts. as you get closer to korea and talk about what we left there, operation homecoming that we all remember so well from february 73 the northril of vietnamese returned 591 pows that was only 12% of remaining. divided between north vietnam and laos. there are a lot of commissions that went on from 1970 the until 1993 trying to resolve the issue. when rolling thunder started toorously then they started get a little more interested in the problem. unfortunately many of the sightings that we saw and tried to set up rescue missions for were leaked and stopped because the deep state leaked they were about to happen. they had to terminate it. a problem within the administration. president that in before he left office signed an agreement with ho chi minh that we would give $5 billion in 1973 to the north koreans for reconstruction. when he resigned that fell through and the north koreans continued to hold upwards of 5000 in north vietnam and laos. londonhe act -- a in when danang fell, welcoming the , tip majority leader o'neill to london on the behalf of an investor. all he said when i showed him we cannot be the world's policeman. without a doubt the democratic party leadership was controlled in both houses and in a cut and run mindset. he only paid it lipservice, president carter. until president reagan the cia himctor bill casey under made a statement that said, the nation knows there are pows are there. you guys have written the president advising him they are there. you are always talking about it. former director of intelligence agency and director and retired intelligent -- general of the u.s. army is always talking about it. there is no groundswell of support for getting the men out. certainly you're not considering that we pay for them. i was. surely you are not saying we should do something like that with no public support. he concluded by saying we screwed up in 1973 and we screwed up all the time. my job is to make sure we don't screw up again. do you want another iranian hostage crisis? you can see what the problem was and why he was so critical in 1988 that rolling thunder be activated in form under the brilliant leadership we have. they had a select committee after that under senator john kerry and senator bob smith with senator john mccain. they were to look into the pow mia issue. i must say i was in the pentagon as the number three man in the air force. i could not understand why senator kerry and mccain successfully deep-sixed this. it became quite public. when president clinton was elected that drove the last stake in my humble opinion on resolving the fate of these 5000 mias. let's get something a little fresher, benghazi. everyone remembers benghazi. a coordinated attack against two of our government facilities in benghazi. four americans died. their deaths were likely preventable but hillary clinton's state department and the department of defense never mounted a rescue effort to save them. not one mission was made to save the attackers. whatill do not know president obama did that night except get ready to go to a political rally in las vegas the next day. we lost for americans. they were not the only ones left behind. in the aftermath of the terrorist attack at benghazi there is a concerted effort to reflect responsibility for these debts. from future presidential hopeful -- an outspoken member of the citizens commission of benghazi knew there were lies being advanced by hillary clinton's team. simmons appeared dozens of times on the foxnews channel on radio and in print to defend american heroes. he helped provide evidence to the citizens commission on benghazi proving the direct link to hillary clinton that led to their deaths. for his efforts to show the direct links of the benghazi weapons to hillary clinton he was sent to jail in a federal reason for 25 months for crimes he did not commit. he was attacked and discredited by the corrupt u.s. attorney's office in the eastern district of virginia under the former attorney. he was attacked by the corrupt -- proving collusion to destroy him reached all the way to the judge in simmons case. same judge as flynn in the paul manafort case. these also proves that the left of -- the collusion between the defense attorney. attorney general barr should look into the simmons case as he starts looking into the russian collusion case because they use the same tactics and procedures they are using against president trump. get the whole team's net worth. they had a team to protect the clinton election campaign. i know because they did it to my computer. i was part of that. we walked to throughout many years that we left behind our mias, by democratic and republican administrations. everyatter of fact, president since roosevelt to obama has used a deep state to thewar efforts to return mias from world war ii, korea and vietnam. president trump has been hampered to do anything for mias because he has been fighting for his life deliberately led by the .bama administration these shameful acts by the house that are being committed today generalk, the attorney and former white house attorney plus other staffers is a clear violation of the separation of powers. the president's direction to the classified intelligence and doj community documents concerning the obama administration politicizing intelligence processes and fabricating false narratives against the trump campaign manager new -- we mustion support the president in those efforts because it must never happen again. these are the same violators that prevented our pows and mias from being accounted for and returns to america for three wars. we must closely watch this. we have seen a new threat to our democracy. the great new deal -- let's call it what it is. thunder's patriotic efforts the last few years has exposed the deep state. we did leave americans behind in our last war. rty and the rolling thunder membership. on accountable is unacceptable. god bless rolling thunder and the national league of pow families. who represent those families that never got the answers they deserve. i might remind you that the five administration traded television four-star general equivalents to get back one betrayer towas a the american people. he was a deserter. you have done this nation a great service and we are forever grateful. the president is extremely interested because you are the most important event that happens in washington dc each year. god bless you, keep doing what you are doing. thank you. [applause] >> i want president trump to think about one thing. years ago i saw a movie about the presidency and i think you should send a message to hillary , i amn and nancy pelosi the president of the united states. thank you. >> watch book to the all day today for noted featured authors. in former obama adviser valerie jarrett on her path to the white house. brooksi president arthur offers strategies on how to bridge our political divide. at 930, communications professor kathleen jamieson. and finally, at 11:30 p.m., award-winning biographer robert caro discusses his writing process. watch today, memorial day, on c-span2. [no audio] ♪ brian: joanne freeman, what is your book, "the field of blood" about? joanne: it is about physical violence in the u.s. congress between 1830-ish and the civil war.