History of the

Operation God Bless America

Motorcycle Ride for Veterans

(Greencastle, Pa. - Martinsburg, W. Va.)

Written by Robert K. McCulloh, Original Founder of the Ride & Chairman of the OGBA Planning committee from 1991 - 1995.

( now the reason I am writing this history of the "Operation God Bless America" Ride is because for five years between January 1991 and January 1996 I poured my heart and soul into this ride and both worked and fought to make it a successful event.  After it was well established and going strong enough that I knew it would continue, I turned it over to AJ & Mary Ann Davenport due to my increased lack of time due to work and my children getting older.   This ride was what I wanted to be remembered for.  It was my legacy and my way of serving our veterans.  For the 10th anniversary I was invited back as a speaker, for the 15th anniversary I contacted AJ & Mary Ann early on and asked to be part of the ceremony.  They got back to me about two weeks before the ride and I was told there was nothing for me to due but I was welcome to go on the ride.  Now, I have been hearing stories from several people that others are now claiming credit for starting this ride and making it successful.  Below you will read the history of the first five years, how it started, and some of the obstacles I had to cross to make this happen.   Also you will see pictures and newspaper articles, in no particular order, from the first five years. I'm not asking for much, I just don't want to be forgotten or for others to be getting credit for 5 years of my life.)

The beginning:  Early in 1991 while hostilities in the gulf were growing and it was well known we were headed to war, I was setting in my living room working on plans for a spring ride for the motorcycle club that I was president of.  I always looked forward to that first run of the year when all the members of the Tuscarora Riders Motorcycle Club would get together for a ride.  I tried very hard to make that fist run a success every year so that everyone would be active throughout the year in helping to plan other events.

I decided to try and do something that would help the wounded soldiers that would surly be coming home soon from the pending war.  I decided to have a fund-raiser for our local VA Hospital and try and incorporate it with a nice ride through the mountains.  As our home town was within about a 45 minute ride of Gettysburg, PA. I though that the Eternal Peace Light on the battle field would be a very moving and patriotic place to end the ride.

The more I thought about the ride and watched the news, the more I wanted this ride to be turn out bigger than anything we had done so far.   The Tuscarora Riders MC was a small full Patch Motorcycle club with at that time about 30 members.  As many of us were also members of the local chapter of ABATE, I wanted them to join us on this ride,  try and raise more money, and also nit a better bond between the two organizations.  I contacted an old friend of mine Mark Kuhns who was at that time coordinator for the Keystone Chapter of ABATE.  Mark stopped by my house a few nights later and we went over the plans I had laid out so far.  After talking about the ride for a couple of hours Mark said he thought I had a good chance of doing something in our area that had never been tried before.  He suggested that I contact all the local motorcycle clubs in the area and see if they would make this a chapter ride for their organization.  First I had to set a date and contact the Park service about the ride.  The date was no problem with the park service and the date was set for April 28, 1991. Next I gave the ride a name I thought would stick out.  As the military operation in the gulf at that time was called "Operation Desert Shield"  and it had been announced that the war would be called "Operation Desert Storm, the logical name for the ride would be "Operation God Bless America".  I spent the next several weeks attending meetings with the other clubs in the area.  This was tough as many people did not want to have anything to do with a ride put on by a "Patch Holding" club.  Some members even had the nerve (in front of me at the meeting) to suggest that they hold their own ride based on the plans I had laid out rather than ride with us.  Thankfully the officers of all the clubs thought this would be rather rude and pushed to get their groups to join ours. We did have one club that refused to ride because we were not AMA sanctioned.  After the 3rd year they joined the ride also.

So now the stage was set and there was no turning back.  Although this was a Tuscarora Riders MC event,  I thought it would be good to have the other organizations participate in getting ready for the ride.  This was a good way to make sure nobody backed out.  I asked one group with some political back ground (ABATE) to contact Senator Terry Punt and ask him to be our speaker at the event.   Another group volunteered to have programs printed up as they knew a printer that would do it as a donation to the ride.  All the other groups were just to help out by passing the word and handing out flyers, working registration and so on.  Everything went like clock work until the last week before the ride when I started to see clouds on the horizon.  First the weather was calling for a strong chance of rain which in April can be very cold.   Then I stopped by the printers to check on the programs and came to find out that All the organizations were listed except for the one who's ride it really was, the Tuscarora Riders MC.  The best part was I found that I was not listed either and I was presenting the check and had been the one who thought up the ride and fought so hard to get everyone together.  Oh well mistakes can happen and it just had to be an oversight.  I got the printer to change the programs and all went ok. We had one more meeting a few days before the ride and went over the program so everyone had their ducks in a row.  This included my speech, the presentation of the check to the rep from the VA Hospital and everything else.

The day of the ride came and it was looking like it could rain at any moment.  When it was finally time to hit the road to my amazement we had 180 riders headed out in one long line for the eternal peace light in Gettysburg lead by myself and the other members of the Tuscarora riders MC.  When we got to the Eternal peace light in Gettysburg, the park service was freaking out as they thought that it was a bicycle ride and when we rode in with all those loud Harley's they didn't know what to do so they made us park about a half mile away in a service parking lot and walk to the peace light (we think they were trying to hide us).

Everyone gathered around in the grass off to one side near some cannons for the ceremony.  At that time I was not used to speaking in front of large groups of people so I had asked one of the members of another organization to MC the event and I would just get up to do my short speech and present the check.   This had without a doubt turned out to be the best event the Tuscarora Riders and I had ever put together and my mind was racing a thousand miles a minute until it crashed.   Terry Punt was the first to speak and a great speech he gave clear up until he gave the Mason - Dixon chapter of ABATE credit for the ride in front of all the media that had shown up to cover the event.  I was blown away, but how would you correct a Senator in front of the media about this, you don't, so I let it go.   After all I was already nervous as my turn to speak was about to come up.  The MC was preparing to announce me to give my speech and present the check he decided to say a few words himself.  To my amazement it was word for word the speech that I had written and asked him to go over with me to make sure it sounded OK.  Now what do I do.   I walked up and presented the check as that was all that was left and walked back off to the side.

Now all that was left to do was to take my club and head home with all of us in shock.  Not only had we spent 3 months planning a ride that we didn't get any credit for, many members of the club came up to me with stories of hearing people ask why we were there and why we were aloud to fly our colors at an ABATE sponsored event like that.

I was about to fade into the wood work when a very nice lady called me at home and said that I had been invited to go to the hospital to turn the actual money over to the chief of voluntary services and tour the Hospital.   Although at the time I was very upset as to how the ride had worked out I said that I would go. A week or so later about 10 of us rode to the hospital.  My wife Staci and myself along with several members of the Harley Owners Group and a couple From ABATE of MD.  All of whom knew what had happened and wanted to support me and the ride.   I was surprised but none of the organizations who had gotten credit for the ride showed up and also none of my own Club members would ride along with me either.  It seems most of them felt I had embarrassed the club by allowing the credit to go to the other organizations.

The day was an emotional experience for me to see what our freedom really cost.  We visited with Americans that had fought in every war since WW1 and I saw things that Brought tears to my eyes.  Then it happened,,,The hospital asked me if I would do the ride again next year and end it at the hospital where the veterans could see all the bikes ride in.  They offered to have a picnic lunch and a band for us.  The next thing that happened set me back a step or so farther.   Everyone there that had participated in the ride said it was my call as it was my ride.  They told me if I didn't do it they still would do something but they would never use the ride name Operation God Bless America unless I was at the lead.  I agreed and we started to plan the next years ride.  It was no longer a Tuscarora Riders event as they voted only to be a participating club but not the sponcer.  I also decided that never again would any single organization take credit for this ride and formed the Operation God Bless America Planning Committee.  This would be made up of two representatives from each club that wanted to help plan and promote the ride.  I also decided to make all contacts myself from that time on so nothing would ever get messed up again.  This meant many hours writing letters and making phone calls but in the end, it was well worth it.

As I started planning for Operation God Bless America II, I contacted a good friend of mine that at the time was a full bird cornal in the United States Marine Corps, Col. William Sanders.  First I asked him as a combat Veteran of the Viet Nam War if he would be our main speaker for the ceremony at the VA Hospital. As this ride was to end at the hospital and all the veterans would be there I thought they would rather hear from one of their own than from a politician.  The next thing on the agenda was to try and get a color guard from every branch of the service to represent their service personnel at the ceremony, bill helped me with this also.  The route I picked for the ride would take us through 3 states but at a point that would only take about 45 mins to complete.  I contacted the state police from all the states and also local police departments that the route would affect.  We got a very good response and a lot of help with traffic control. With the suggestion from a member of the planning committee we sent down and wrote to many of our local veterans organizations asking for support and to our amazement the checks started rolling in.  When this happened I decided we would need to set up an account at a bank to deposit the checks into and have checks made up to pay any costs concurred during the promotion of the ride.  To make sure no one thought I was skimming any money, I set it up as a dual signature account with the other signature be that of a person in another Motorcycle organization.

The time came for the ride and the weather was great.  The number of people and the amount of moneys raise doubled from the previous year.  This was a trend that would continue every year during my time as ride chairman. Upon entering onto the Hospital grounds we drove down the main street that was lined on both sides with American flags.  It wasn't until later that I found out that all of those flags came from the coffins of American Veterans and were donated to the hospital by the families of the veterans.  I was also informed that those flags are only flown 4 times per year. Veterans Day, Memorial Day, The 4th of July and the day of The Operation God Bless America motorcycle Ride.  What a honor to be included in this, I was beyond choked up when hearing this.  We also received the Directors commendation award every year that I was in charge and probably still do to this day.

During year three we added ride pins, hats & T-Shirts.  I also had a flag printed with the ride logo on it out of my own pocket and to this day it hangs in my wreck room.  I ran the Operation God Bless America Motorcycle Ride for the first 5 years until my work obligations and family obligations started to take away from the time I had to spend on the planning of each years ride and I was afraid the ride would suffer from it if I continued to be the chairman and coordinator so I contacted a couple that had been part of the ride from the second year on as members of the planning committee ( AJ & Mary Ann davenport) and asked them if they would take over. This was no problem as Mary Ann was the treasurer the last two years and they had been very involved all the way along.  I felt assured that these were the ones to take my place.  From this time on they have done a very nice job and the ride has continued to grow every year and has raised well over $250,000 dollars for our countries veterans.

A second ride was started in 1996 ending at the Lebanon, Pa. Veterans Hospital and continues to this day helping veterans at that facility and is Run by Barry Stevens another original member of my planning committee and a Viet Nam veteran.

Anyone wishing to take part in the original annual ride from Greencastle, Pa. to the Martinsburg, W Va. Veterans Hospital, it is held on the first Sunday of June every year and Starts at the Truck Plaza at Pa. exit 5, I-81.   Registration is from 9am until 11am and the ride leaves the Truck Stop at 12 noon sharp. I would suggest getting there early.  The last year I rode so far was OGBA 15 in 2005 and the Maryland State police said our procession was over 12 miles long and covered the whole state on I-81 from the Pa line to the W Va. line.  That year we presented Dottie Hough, Chief of voluntary services a check for the Hospital in the amount of $33,000.00

"Operation God Bless America XVII",   held on June 3rd 2007 just raised $41,000.00 for the Martinsburg VA Medical Center.

"GOD BLESS AMERICA and the VETERANS who have Served it".  This was the last thing I would say every year at the end of the ceremony at the hospital.

Support Our Country's Veterans

Check out the OGBA website at   http://www.members.fortunecity.com/ogba1/

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(I will post more pictures and information as I get time to dig them out)

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