Mississippi says goodbye to the Trail of Honor veterans event. See why

After 24 years, the annual pre-Memorial Day weekend veterans’ recognition event called the Trail of Honor, held at the Harley Davidson Motorcycle shop on I-55 south in Jackson, is going away.

Organizers said they no longer have enough volunteers to conduct the annual event safely and most of the volunteers they have are getting older and it has become difficult to continue in the way they have in the past.

This year’s event will be held one day only on Monday, May 20, and will return to its original mission of serving as a lunch and fuel stop for Run for the Wall riders only inside the Jackson Harley Davidson shop.

While Monday’s event at the Harley Davidson shop will not be open to the public, people have been known to assemble at overpasses along the I-20 route to watch the motorcycles go by from Vicksburg and on into Alabama.

Images from last year's Trail of Honor: https://www.clarionledger.com/picture-gallery/news/2023/05/26/images-from-trail-of-honor-in-jackson-ms-may-20-21/1196969

Starting in the early 2000s, the Trail of Honor was a lunch and fuel stop at the Jackson Harley Davidson Motorcycle shop for an annual patriotic motorcycle ride called Run for the Wall from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.

Since those humble beginnings, the Trail of Honor evolved into a three-day annual event to recognize the nation’s veterans, and the event will be remembered and missed for years to come.

David McElroy, who goes by the nickname "Stupid" and who served as director of the Trail of Honor, recounted the event’s history.

“We started when we hosted Run for The Wall Southern Route Recon in May 2000,” McElroy said. “We have hosted Run for The Wall every year since, including two COVID years when neither Run for The Wall nor the Trail of Honor officially took place.”

Run for the Wall from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., is held annually on Memorial Day weekend and consists of multiple routes, including the Southern Route that proceeds through Mississippi.

Since 2003, the local stop, called the Trail of Honor, at the Jackson Harley shop has been an annual three-day tribute to those who have served in the nation’s military.

War heroes, reenactors, the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, helicopters, ground vehicles and more took over the Harley Davidson dealership in Jackson each year since as hundreds of volunteers pitched in to make sure things ran smoothly.

Through the woods behind the Harley Davidson dealership in Jackson, volunteers cleared out a trail every spring in anticipation for the living museum that would soon line the trail.

Reenactors with their period clothes, gear and tents represented every conflict that the United States has fought in from the French and Indian War up to current conflicts.

Mock battles took place regularly with the thunder of Northern and Southern Civil War-era artillery, World War II Allied soldiers defeating the German Wehrmacht and Vietnam-era American soldiers triumphing over Vietnamese forces.

But that wasn’t half of it.

Inside the dealership, all inventory was cleared out to make room for a unique experience that could rarely be had anywhere else.

From all over the nation, actual war heroes assembled to meet and visit with anyone who came. Those were not paid actors who portray brave soldiers and heroes in Hollywood movies, they were actual men and women who lived through extraordinary circumstances and did extraordinary things.

Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, Medal of Honor recipients, former POWs, a Pearl Harbor survivor, a Bataan Death March survivor, and many more were seated and eager to share their experiences.

Visitors were also able to meet Gold Star Mothers, American Legion and VFW members, and present-day military members.

Every year on the Wednesday prior to Trail of Honor weekend, motorcycle riders escorted The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall to the Harley Davidson dealership in Jackson.

A scale model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, the “Wall,” was set up just past the Vietnam-era camp.

Guarded day and night by the Mississippi State Guard, the Wall was in a convenient place to access without visitors having to walk the other parts of the Trail and was open 24 hours during that weekend.

A book was also present for family members to look up their loved ones, and paper and pencil were provided for those who wanted to make a rubbing of any of the names on the Wall.

It was an emotional sight as people often left flowers, notes and other small gifts by the name that they came to see, just like they do at the actual “Wall” in Washington, D.C.

It all started with a little bike ride.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi says goodbye to the Trail of Honor veterans event