Ohio biker visits Culpeper National Cemetery
Two gruff bikers were a little late to the Memorial Day service at Culpeper National Cemetery Monday.
Katie Dolac
Staff writer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
They coasted in on their Harley Davidson motorcycles quietly and slipped in casually as speakers addressed nearly 300 people.
Marine Col. Thomas Doetzer recalled his first meeting with his father-in-law, also buried at Culpeper National Cemetery.
“He stood ramrod straight in an Army uniform,” he said, and even though he stood two inches taller than his father-in-law, he was still the tallest man he’d ever seen.
The ceremony concluded with a rifle salute by the American Legion Post 330 and a patriotic selection by the Culpeper County High School band.
After the pomp-and-circumstance ended and the crowd thinned (many filtering to the headstones of loved ones buried there, others to lunch at VFW Post 2454), they greeted a sprightly, bearded man wearing a camouflage boonie hat and a gray T-shirt that read “In memory of those who gave all” and listed five names.
Ohio biker John Favorite, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran with a graying goatee and a dragon tattoo on his forearm, sweltered under a patch-laden leather vest and an American flag do-rag.
Favorite and his friend were two of thousands of veterans who roared through Washington, D.C. Sunday for the 20th annual Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally - an event to raise veteran awareness.
They came to Culpeper to finally meet the young Marine whose face Favorite painted on his bike.
The sprightly, bearded man led them to his 20-year-old son Lance Cpl. Karl R. Linn.
“Here he is, and here’s my dad,” Richard Linn, of Midlothian, said kneeling between their white headstones.
Linn’s son died Jan. 26, 2005 of wounds he received as a result of enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq. His father Robert, a Navy veteran from World War II, died on his 80th birthday five years ago.
“One had a full life and the other one didn’t,” Karl Linn’s grandmother Anita Linn said. “When you get to be my age, you don’t fight it, you accept it.”
Richard Linn’s son was one of the five names on the T-shirt. The other four were comrades, also killed in action.
“I’m so glad we were able to come down here,” Favorite said to his buddy.
Favorite’s bike is a mobile monument to Linn and three other Marines who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Global War on Terrorism. Though he never knew any of the faces personally, he knows their smiles and their names, and he’s reminded every time he rides.
Favorite’s bike is his small way of reconciling with the angry American sentiment he faced returning from Vietnam. Images of veterans being jeered and spat upon are seared in his memory.
“Whether or not this is a good war, we need to support our men and women,” Favorite said. “They’re still there. They’re still Americans. They’re still our children.”
Favorite considers it his personal mission to ride to their hometowns, meet their families and show how they are forever remembered. His next stop is Tulsa, Okla.