thedrifter
04-07-03, 09:48 AM
Sunday, April 06, 2003 2:16 PM
Subject: 2003 cage walk
We hope you have heard about Fred "Gunner" Bletz's (USMC) 2003 Cage Walk from Mich to Wash. DC and that you'll do the things needed to get him there safely. Gunner is the Pres. of Rolling Thunder Chap. 2 in Mich and just passed thru Medina County, Ohio yesterday. Look for him in PA within the next two weeks.
You can contact me or Kitti Bletz at gunnerrt@home.ionia.com or 616-642-6825
Support would include cage pullers, donations, local media press releases and publicity, notification to public officials, meals and accomadations. Co-odination with and notification to Vet groups forward to Maryland and backward to Akron is also very important. Help get the word out. Fred is counting on local support to make it to DC by May 23rd. His passage should renew public awareness to the POW/MIA issues.
Bless you for what you do.
Al Junke
Buzzards27@yahoo.com
Local Press Story:
A taste of war: 900-mile ride in a cage
BRUNSWICK, Ohio — There is nothing like seeing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
But seeing Fred Bletz slumped inside a 4-foot-square bamboo cage is a little bit like visiting the Wall. It makes the cost, suffering and despair of war too real, too close for comfort, too overwhelming to be ignored.
That's exactly why Bletz, 54, is traveling 900 miles in the cage from his home in Michigan to the nation's capital. It's too easy to think because the guns of World War II, Korea and other conflicts have long been silent, those wars are history. To Bletz, a Vietnam veteran, there are 98,000 reasons those battles are not over.
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, that's how many soldiers remain unaccounted for in America's wars, he said. Some were undoubtedly prisoners of war; others were missing in action and never found. They deserve not to be forgotten. Their families deserve the closure of knowing what happened.
"The purpose of this mission is to have accountability by our government now and for all future wars," said Bletz, a former Marine. "We've got another generation of veterans coming. Are they going to be treated like the way we've treated the World War II veterans? Vietnam veterans?"
There are also those former soldiers Bletz calls "missing in action" in America: Those who face difficulty in their daily lives as a result of financial difficulties, physical problems or emotional stress.
Funding for veterans programs should be a priority, given the sacrifices servicemen and women have made for their country, he said. Instead, veterans' benefits seem to be among the first items on the budget chopping block. Bletz knows some former soldiers who subsist on dog food in order to pay for their prescriptions.
"The warriors who fight for this country are discarded like trash," he said. "How do you explain this to the American public, what a soldier gives up? It's hard to explain. It's hard to put into words."
So, he put it on wheels. When pictures of POWs and MIAs are flashed on the news, he said, they always seem to be from small-town America. And that's where he's taking this tour. It's supported by the national POW/MIA advocacy group, Rolling Thunder. He began planning it in September, long before military action began in Iraq.
Bletz and his support crew entered Medina County Thursday morning, pausing to lay a wreath at a veterans memorial in Hinckley Township. From there, township fire crews, Brunswick police and members of the Medina chapter of Rolling Thunder escorted him into the city. The cage is mounted on a small trailer, which can be pulled by hand or by a vehicle.
He left Lansing on March 15 and hopes to roll into Washington on Memorial Day weekend. At each stop, he's met by veterans groups and volunteers who help promote his cause or offer food or a place to stay.
Today, Bletz will travel from Brunswick to Medina on U.S. Route 42. He will lay a wreath at the Medina County Vietnam Veterans Memorial and attend a 7 p.m. potluck dinner at Veterans Memorial Hall. Spencer native, former POW and Air Force pilot Paul Kari will be the dinner's featured speaker. The public is invited to attend. Saturday, he'll head on to Fairlawn on state Route 18.
The source of the Wall's emotional power is its immensity. The cage's impact is in the way it confines and exposes its occupant at the same time. So many people walk up to the cage and simply break down, he said. The bars just keep the prisoner in. They don't keep evil out.
"When I sit in that cage, the hardest part for me is when we parade and come through town," Bletz said. That's exactly what happens to POWs, he said. They are often paraded through towns as trophies. Except, onlookers are not waving and honking their horns in support. Chances are, the prisoner is being physically beaten and abused.
"Can you imagine running across somebody in a cage like that in a jungle and you see bamboo growing through their head? ‘Geneva Convention?' " he asked. "I don't think so. Can you imagine seeing someone who has been skinned alive?" His eyes fill with tears.
That's what Bletz, a Marine machine gunner, saw in Vietnam. It changes you, he said. War changes you forever.
Bletz put up his right hand. It was worn and rough and stained from work and cigarettes, the hand of a retired blacksmith. Bletz is thin, with icy blue eyes and long hair drawn back in a ponytail. He's wearing camouflage and a black beret.
In seven months in Vietnam, Bletz was wounded twice.
He held out his thumb and finger and brought them together until they were about a quarter of an inch apart. That was how close he came to becoming a prisoner of war himself, he said. In Vietnam, Bletz's helicopter was shot out of the sky. Somehow, when the rescue helicopter took off, he was not on it.
"The worst moment was when I seen that helicopter take everybody else away and left me behind. Talk about feeling helpless and abandoned," he said. "I know how it felt for me. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a POW and be totally abandoned. I only got a little taste of it."
He hopes the cage can give the rest of us a taste of it, too. He is accepting donations — to help veterans or to help defray the costs of the trip — but Bletz wants more than money.
"We need the public not just to reach into their pockets, but to change things. Money is a Band-Aid," he said. "It ain't about me. It's about what we need. We need to take care of our veterans. We need to ask our congressmen and our senators, ‘Why are we abandoning our warriors?' "
On the Net — http://www.rollingthunderoh8.com.
http://www.medina-gazette.com/Articles.asp?num=57128016
John Gladden may be reached at 330-721-4052 or gladden@ohio.net.
Sempers,
Roger
"Support Our Soldiers"
United We Stand
God Bless America
Remember our POW/MIA's
I'll never forget!
Subject: 2003 cage walk
We hope you have heard about Fred "Gunner" Bletz's (USMC) 2003 Cage Walk from Mich to Wash. DC and that you'll do the things needed to get him there safely. Gunner is the Pres. of Rolling Thunder Chap. 2 in Mich and just passed thru Medina County, Ohio yesterday. Look for him in PA within the next two weeks.
You can contact me or Kitti Bletz at gunnerrt@home.ionia.com or 616-642-6825
Support would include cage pullers, donations, local media press releases and publicity, notification to public officials, meals and accomadations. Co-odination with and notification to Vet groups forward to Maryland and backward to Akron is also very important. Help get the word out. Fred is counting on local support to make it to DC by May 23rd. His passage should renew public awareness to the POW/MIA issues.
Bless you for what you do.
Al Junke
Buzzards27@yahoo.com
Local Press Story:
A taste of war: 900-mile ride in a cage
BRUNSWICK, Ohio — There is nothing like seeing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
But seeing Fred Bletz slumped inside a 4-foot-square bamboo cage is a little bit like visiting the Wall. It makes the cost, suffering and despair of war too real, too close for comfort, too overwhelming to be ignored.
That's exactly why Bletz, 54, is traveling 900 miles in the cage from his home in Michigan to the nation's capital. It's too easy to think because the guns of World War II, Korea and other conflicts have long been silent, those wars are history. To Bletz, a Vietnam veteran, there are 98,000 reasons those battles are not over.
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, that's how many soldiers remain unaccounted for in America's wars, he said. Some were undoubtedly prisoners of war; others were missing in action and never found. They deserve not to be forgotten. Their families deserve the closure of knowing what happened.
"The purpose of this mission is to have accountability by our government now and for all future wars," said Bletz, a former Marine. "We've got another generation of veterans coming. Are they going to be treated like the way we've treated the World War II veterans? Vietnam veterans?"
There are also those former soldiers Bletz calls "missing in action" in America: Those who face difficulty in their daily lives as a result of financial difficulties, physical problems or emotional stress.
Funding for veterans programs should be a priority, given the sacrifices servicemen and women have made for their country, he said. Instead, veterans' benefits seem to be among the first items on the budget chopping block. Bletz knows some former soldiers who subsist on dog food in order to pay for their prescriptions.
"The warriors who fight for this country are discarded like trash," he said. "How do you explain this to the American public, what a soldier gives up? It's hard to explain. It's hard to put into words."
So, he put it on wheels. When pictures of POWs and MIAs are flashed on the news, he said, they always seem to be from small-town America. And that's where he's taking this tour. It's supported by the national POW/MIA advocacy group, Rolling Thunder. He began planning it in September, long before military action began in Iraq.
Bletz and his support crew entered Medina County Thursday morning, pausing to lay a wreath at a veterans memorial in Hinckley Township. From there, township fire crews, Brunswick police and members of the Medina chapter of Rolling Thunder escorted him into the city. The cage is mounted on a small trailer, which can be pulled by hand or by a vehicle.
He left Lansing on March 15 and hopes to roll into Washington on Memorial Day weekend. At each stop, he's met by veterans groups and volunteers who help promote his cause or offer food or a place to stay.
Today, Bletz will travel from Brunswick to Medina on U.S. Route 42. He will lay a wreath at the Medina County Vietnam Veterans Memorial and attend a 7 p.m. potluck dinner at Veterans Memorial Hall. Spencer native, former POW and Air Force pilot Paul Kari will be the dinner's featured speaker. The public is invited to attend. Saturday, he'll head on to Fairlawn on state Route 18.
The source of the Wall's emotional power is its immensity. The cage's impact is in the way it confines and exposes its occupant at the same time. So many people walk up to the cage and simply break down, he said. The bars just keep the prisoner in. They don't keep evil out.
"When I sit in that cage, the hardest part for me is when we parade and come through town," Bletz said. That's exactly what happens to POWs, he said. They are often paraded through towns as trophies. Except, onlookers are not waving and honking their horns in support. Chances are, the prisoner is being physically beaten and abused.
"Can you imagine running across somebody in a cage like that in a jungle and you see bamboo growing through their head? ‘Geneva Convention?' " he asked. "I don't think so. Can you imagine seeing someone who has been skinned alive?" His eyes fill with tears.
That's what Bletz, a Marine machine gunner, saw in Vietnam. It changes you, he said. War changes you forever.
Bletz put up his right hand. It was worn and rough and stained from work and cigarettes, the hand of a retired blacksmith. Bletz is thin, with icy blue eyes and long hair drawn back in a ponytail. He's wearing camouflage and a black beret.
In seven months in Vietnam, Bletz was wounded twice.
He held out his thumb and finger and brought them together until they were about a quarter of an inch apart. That was how close he came to becoming a prisoner of war himself, he said. In Vietnam, Bletz's helicopter was shot out of the sky. Somehow, when the rescue helicopter took off, he was not on it.
"The worst moment was when I seen that helicopter take everybody else away and left me behind. Talk about feeling helpless and abandoned," he said. "I know how it felt for me. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a POW and be totally abandoned. I only got a little taste of it."
He hopes the cage can give the rest of us a taste of it, too. He is accepting donations — to help veterans or to help defray the costs of the trip — but Bletz wants more than money.
"We need the public not just to reach into their pockets, but to change things. Money is a Band-Aid," he said. "It ain't about me. It's about what we need. We need to take care of our veterans. We need to ask our congressmen and our senators, ‘Why are we abandoning our warriors?' "
On the Net — http://www.rollingthunderoh8.com.
http://www.medina-gazette.com/Articles.asp?num=57128016
John Gladden may be reached at 330-721-4052 or gladden@ohio.net.
Sempers,
Roger
"Support Our Soldiers"
United We Stand
God Bless America
Remember our POW/MIA's
I'll never forget!