I started Wednesday morning by picking up everything that was donated to us by local companies and people. I received batteries for our walkies from Progress Rail in Waskom and power bars from Matt Brown with Sportspectrum and Mike Pitman. I picked up the food that was given to us by Beth McDade and Sister Yarbrough and went by Fairfield Grocery to pick up all the food and goodies they donated. Then I went to get the van that Budget rent a Car and owner Herb Robinson donated. I met with Nancy Mathews, another state coordinator, Carol Bagley, an American Airlines flight attendant, Peggy, Bill, Dallas, Larry and Kelly with Willow Trace apartments and town homes. These Willow Trace employees and Carol volunteered to be our drivers for the entire route across Louisiana. We met at Yokem Toyota in Shreveport to pick up the van and walkie-talkies that Ronnie Vaughan and Clint Miller, salesmen from Yokem Toyota, had arranged for us through Yokem. Greg Howard, a pilot for American Airlines, met us there with the cases of water that had been donated to us by Coca Cola and Dana Vaughan. Chris Landman also met us there since Time Trend donated him to us for technical and transportation support.

We departed Shreveport at 2:30pm to meet the flag at the Mississippi/Louisiana border. We arrived at the border and met with Mike Cummings, the MS coordinator. We loaded up the RV and waited for the flag to cross the Hwy 80 Bridge. As we sat at the foot of the Hwy 80 Bridge and waited for the flag to arrive, a mass of people had arrived to witness the event. This was amazing to say the least. This bridge had been closed for over a year, but Mike had worked out with the MS Governor a way for our runners and the flag to cross. A group of about 20 runners crossed the bridge and a local that was sitting at a bar nearby, pulled his truck up to the road and hoisted an American flag over the hwy as the runners passed by.

Michael Jefferson and about 10 other members of the Louisiana Air Guard drove up to the Ms border from New Orleans, La to receive the flag. These guys were dedicated and so much fun. They met on the Ms side of the border and helped carry the flag across the bridge and then continued for about 30miles. At this point Mike Burr and Gary Rivenson had joined us in the RV. A couple of miles up we made a detour into a small bar where the guys ran the flag through the bar and received refreshing beverages. About 2 miles up from there we made another stop into an adult entertainment establishment. Some of the entertainment met us on the street in their patriotic red, white, and blue garb and flashed us their American Flag tattoos. Of course we had to stop so the runners could get some motivation to continue. A couple of the runners decided to stay back and enjoy the local enthusiasm for a little while. We proceeded on. As we hit Tallulah, we encountered some pretty heavy rains and had quite an electrical storm. Mike Burr and Gary Rivenson jumped out to assist the runner with the flag so he wouldn’t have to run in the storm. He wouldn’t give it up.

He insisted on running the flag no matter what the weather was. These guys continued through the rain for about 20-30 minutes without stopping once. I knew at this point, that this was going to be an emotional journey.

Thursday, October 25th

For the next 21 miles our runners showed up on time, and raring to go. Our runners had driven to their meeting points from Arkansas, Mandeville la, W. Monroe la and one even flew in from Pennsylvania to participate. Karen drove over from Arkansas and when I talked with her she was so nervous about carrying the flag. She was so proud to be apart of the Flagrun and was overcome with emotions. Both Joe and Karen expressed their gratitude and said they would meet up with us later to again run the flag. At our next meeting point, we had two runners that had driven up from Shreveport. They jumped in to continue the flag and stayed with us all the way to Monroe, La. Frank and Christie only signed up to run about 12 miles but ended up getting off the route at about 30 miles. They were amazing! We didn’t really realize it then, but soon found out that this was going to be the case throughout our state. Once people jumped in, they didn’t want to stop. A runner told me inside the RV that the adrenaline keeps you going. You don’t really realize how exhausted you are because your emotions are keeping you going.

Our next pass-through was Rayville, La. At 5 o’clock in the morning, in a very small town, we didn’t expect much response. Again, we were shown otherwise. Deanna and a group of about 20 youth from her church met us there and ran the flag through their town. Their enthusiasm and Christian spirit was nothing like anything I had ever seen. Their group made a card for us with inspirational scriptures and we put it in the RV to be read by everyone along the way to Los Angeles. They had offered to buy the RV gas as a way to help, but unfortunately, there were no gas stations up and running at that time in the morning. We thanked them profusely and continued.

As we entered into Girard, we noticed a gas station and decided it was time to gas up. When we rolled into this small establishment, we had early risers there getting their coffee before work. Everyone wanted to help. One gentleman came up to the RV and told Nancy that he wanted to help. He went inside and paid for our gasoline. We never got his name because he just disappeared. He did what he was compelled to do without any recognition. The owner of the gas station also fueled our drivers with some much-needed caffeine. Support comes in many ways.

We continued along into the Monroe area. I had been in touch with Bill and Carla Robinson when I was trying to find runners for the area. Carla is a flight attendant for American and Bill is a local business owner in Monroe. They were ready to take the project and run with it. Bill got the word out in the area and drummed up some huge support. He not only had runners for the whole stretch of Monroe, but also had scheduled get togethers along the route. We stopped at many schools and let the kids see the flag. At one elementary school in Monroe, as the flag passed through their drive they all ran up to the flag and ran with the flag around the school. Picture about 100 elementary school kids carrying the flag around the school. Joe Lane had already rejoined us and was carrying the flag. He especially was touched because his wife and daughter were at that school and got to carry the flag with him. Everyone in eyes distance was overwhelmed. There wasn’t a dry eye anywhere. Soon after this Karen had also rejoined us. She was just coming to see the turnout, but ended up running a little to help some fatigued runners. A little further up the road was a middle school that I had gotten word was outside and waiting on us. We drove around their drive to see every student in camouflage holding flags and cheering, U.S.A, U.S.A. Again, we were speechless. As we reached our next meeting place we had a track coach carrying the flag right in front of his school. The whole school was out cheering for their coach and the flag.

After we entered Calhoun, we all realized that we were having hunger pains. Not being able to stop anywhere, we called Dominoes and they said they could deliver the pizza to our RV. We love Dominoes! It was the best pizza I had ever had.

Our next pass was Ruston, La. We had a group of about 15 people that were with Louisiana Tech and the Delta Chi Fraternity. This group was prepared. They came out with their own vehicles to leap frog. They covered about 8 miles. They had their music blaring for motivation and looked like they were having a great time. Once we reached the center of town, we had a major pile up. We had cars behind the 5 or so fire trucks and many police cars. The shuttle vehicles that were changing out runners got blocked behind the service vehicles so the runners were exhausted. Yet, they continued through town. We all jumped in and out of the RV to relieve them, and they just kept on going. They didn’t want the flag to have to stop. All the way through Ruston, this group overcame many obstacles and got the flag to their stop point with an hour to spare.

We pulled over and took a breather. Everyone in the vehicles was starting to shown signs of wear. We took some pictures, rejuvenated and carried on.

The next group of runners had driven up from Shv as well. I had met Nancy, Jill and Robert in Shv at an early morning 5k race earlier in the week. They expressed their willingness to help early on and came through with flying colors. They had signed up to cover an area of 30 miles. At first I was worried that this would be too much of a task for them. They proved me wrong. All along this segment there were people out on their front porches, at the end of their driveways and in their cars stopping to take pictures. We let everyone carry the flag. There was a family with an autistic child that we took the flag up to their house and let her hold it. She was so excited…we were speechless. An older lady was sitting on her porch. As Robert ran around her driveway, she stood with the help of a walker and waved him on. A couple of children were on the side of the road with no shoes on and ran up the street with the flag in their hand. There was nothing stopping them. Once we reached the stopping point, we were an hour and 15 minutes ahead of schedule. So we pulled over, took pictures and chatted with the runners. You didn’t even see a sign of wear on them. They were incredible.

Friday, October 26th

I had spoken to Mark Wise a couple of days before we started the run. He is a state trooper in Louisiana and his wife Misty is a flight attendant for American Airlines. Misty joined our caravan and ran when we needed. Mark offered to buy gasoline for our two support vehicles while we were in the Minden area. Again, when we needed something, it just seemed to come out of nowhere.

Our next group of runners was at their respective spots and raring to go, never mind that it was 12:15 in the morning. There was a group of about 7 or 8 of them and they had volunteered to cover 30 miles. Men, teenagers, children and a dog. They ran until about 4 am. As the children got tired they piled in the RV and fell asleep. The adults just pushed on. The temperature had dropped to around 40 degrees and it was not very easy to run. We never heard one complaint. Once we reached Haughton we had about 6 emergency vehicles on the side of the road, waiting to escort us on. They took us all the way through Bossier. We changed runners, but the previous group just stayed with us to in case we needed them.

At 4 o’clock in the morning, we had people on the side of the road, cheering us on. There was not a time on the route when we weren’t surprised by peoples’ patriotism. As we came into Bossier City there was a large group waiting on us. It seemed the closer we got to Shreveport, the larger the group. We had a hard time keeping everyone in one lane. A group of 20-30 people had accumulated with the flag. Once we reached the meeting point in front of the Krewe of Gemini’s den, there was a approximately 50 people gathered. As the group pushed on to our big meeting point at the foot of the Texas Street bridge we realized that there was about 150 people ready to run the flag over the bridge. We stopped and offered water to the runners and said a quick word of thanks and inspiration. Nancy and I got out of the RV and ran over the bridge with the mass of people that had gathered. After all, we had worked so hard for this and wanted to experience it first hand. The experience of seeing 150 people, run over the Texas St. bridge was something that I will never be able to express in words. Once we crossed the bridge we had everyone gather in front of the Courthouse for a picture. There was no age limitation, race limitation, or religious limitation. We were all Americans, standing with the American Flag with one goal. This picture will stay with me forever.

At this point, I know that we had designated runners, but you couldn’t tell who they were. So many people came out to join without signing up with us. What a wonderful problem to have. I did see Mr. Cox with his Juvenile Court Boot camp students, Scott Smith with his Benton High School students, Coach Nold with his Loyola Track Team and Tom Adair and a group with the Krewe of Centaur.

As we continued down Greenwood road, there were so many people out cheering on the flag. John Fontaine and his daughter met our RV and delivered some much needed nourishment. McDonalds breakfast. We are all forever in his debt. For the rest of the route to Texas, we never had an empty street. Policemen, firemen, navy, army, air force, marines, every group was represented with runners. We met James Susla along the way. He was riding along with the runners on his Harley Davidson. I got out of the RV and rode along with him to chat. He said he just wanted to come out and be apart of this. He jumped off his bike at one point and ran with the flag. By the time we reached Flying J to fill up with gas donated by them, we still had a group of about 20 people. We stopped briefly because we were having trouble dumping the RV lavatory. The hose that is used to dump the lav was gone. It must have been left in MS. We talked to a man that was at the dumpsite about our problem and without hesitation, he gave us a hose. We started up again with the next stop being Waskom, Tx for the handoff. For the next 5 miles we were filled with anticipation. So much hard work had been put into this. We were all exhausted, but the spirit of the Flagrun kept us going. The group that was running insisted on me getting out and running the flag over the border. I didn’t know how I could possibly do this. I hadn’t slept in 48 hours. I got out and try to run the distance. It was then that I had realized that I hadn’t actually carried the flag, what a feeling that was. I then knew what everyone was trying to tell me. Exhausted, I handed the flag off for the runners to finish. As I jumped back in the RV, I was an emotional wreck. I even fell out of the RV if you can believe that. But I found the humor in it and ran back to the RV. As we reached our handoff point, Progress Rail in Waskom, there were about 100 people cheering. Progress Rail shut down their plant and everyone was out in hardhats, with flags and their hands over their hearts. The fire truck was playing patriotic music and everyone was in tears. We had accomplished our task. We got the flag all the way across Louisiana on schedule and with many stories to tell.

I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough police and fire escort across the state. We never had a minute without escort and sometimes up to 10 emergency vehicles at a time. In Shreveport we had about 20 emergency vehicles. It was important for them to come out and be a part of this as well. Carolyn Morris is a ham operator in the Monroe area that got the word out what we were doing. We had ham operators with us almost the entire route that radioed ahead and let them know we were coming. We would have been lost without them.

I have never been involved with something so wonderful in my whole life. After the tragedies of September 11th, we were all searching for a sense of purpose. With this hitting so close to home for me, I knew I had to do something. This just jumped out at me. I didn’t know where to start or how I was going to do it, but there were so many willing people that the task just fell in place. I love my Country and I love my job and nothing will keep me from either one. I just experienced over 300 people in my home state that feel the same way. We must persevere! As long as we stay united we can accomplish anything! Thank you for the memories, they will stay with me for the rest of my life.

In Unity
Robin Jones
Louisiana state coordinator