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Motorcycle trip honors fallen soldiers

GONZALES, La. — On Jan. 20, 2007, a group of U.S. paratroopers was ambushed at Karbala, Iraq. One soldier was killed instantly while four others were taken prisoner and executed.

Last month, four motorcyclists calling themselves the Rolling Honor riders left on a cross-country pilgrimage to visit the hometowns of the four who were executed.

After traveling about 5,000 miles, retired 1st Sgt. Kirk Alkire and the other riders landed in Gonzales, where this week Alkire placed a personal memento at the grave of Army Spc. Johnathan Bryan Chism, who was a Prairieville resident.

It is the last patch that Alkire was to deliver in the monthlong pilgrimage that he and the other three riders began on June 30.

Alkire, who served as first sergeant of all four soldiers, designed the patch in the shape of a U.S. highway sign.

“I knew I had to do something to pay my final respects,” Alkire said. “I got to thinking about the miles between their hometowns and the highways needed to get there.”

Alkire’s patches feature a prominent numeral “4” encircled by the names of Chism and three others also executed — 1st Lt. Jacob Noal Fritz, 25, Falls City, Neb.; Pfc. Shawn Patrick Falter, 25, Cortland, N.Y.; and Pfc. Johnathon Miles Millican, 21, of Locust Fork, Ala.

The four were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based in Fort Richardson, Alaska.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Chism, 22, a 2003 St. Amant High School graduate, was one of four soldiers abducted in a sneak attack at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, then shot to death.

Alkire was still in Iraq when he decided to personally visit each of the fallen soldiers’ graves and to meet their families.

On June 30, Alkire, joined by three of his closest friends from Anchorage, Ak., — Marc Phillips, Laddie Shaw, and Todd Bullock — began the trip as the Rolling Honor riders. The last leg of their journey is from Louisiana to Seattle, some 3,000 miles to the northwest, where their odyssey began.

For Chism’s mother, Elizabeth Chism, the visit by the riders has been “emotionally draining” but also has been a blessing, she said.

“This is helping me and them,” she said, referring to Alkire and his friends. “They are all in different stages of hurt.”

She said she stays in touch with her son’s friends, but also finds comfort in his spirit.

“I want him back; I won’t get him back,” she said. “I miss him every second of the day and I constantly talk to him. He’s now a guardian angel. It’s the job God gave him.”

The family gathered with the group of four Harley-Davidson riders on July 21 to share a private moment to remember Chism.

“To see the grown men crying and to give each other a hug — it was special,” said Patsy Meades, Chism’s sister. “They have not forgotten.”

On the Web: Rolling Honor Riders