Veterans carry POW/MIA flag through Selma on journey to Alabama state capitol

Veterans riding with the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars made Selma one of their key stops Friday as part of a three-day mission to carry the Star Spangled Banner and the POW/MIA flag across Alabama before raising them over the State Capitol on Saturday for POW/MIA Memorial Day.

The riders, mostly all veterans themselves, rolled into the VFW 3016 post on Kings Bend Road shortly after midday. Richard Sherrow, the American Legion Ride Director for the Department of Alabama, said the annual ride is meant to honor service members who never returned home and those who paid what he called the ultimate price.

Sherrow said riders began their route in Birmingham on Wednesday and traveled south to Fowl River and Mobile before turning back north toward Montgomery. Along the way they stopped at American Legion and VFW posts to raise the flag and meet with local veterans. He said the flag they are carrying has flown over approximately 13 posts in southern Alabama since the start of the ride.

This year’s route included Selma for the first time in several years. Sherrow said the group alternates between northern and southern routes each year. Last year riders visited sixteen posts in northern Alabama including Florence, which he noted is one of the oldest American Legion posts in the nation.

Sherrow said the Selma stop was important because the mission is about remembrance and making sure communities see the flag and understand the meaning behind it. He said the riders want people to stop and think about what service members give up and why the POW/MIA flag still matters.

The group will continue to Montgomery where they will ride their motorcycles through the rotunda at the State Capitol during Saturday’s ceremony. After staging at department headquarters in the morning, they will present the flag that has traveled the state and raise it above the Capitol in recognition of POW/MIA Memorial Day.

Their final stops before the ceremony include the VFW in Prattville, the American Legion in Millbrook and Post 122 in Prattville. Sherrow got emotional when he said, “the ride is both an honor and a responsibility.”