For Vietnam veteran and professional photographer Patrick Hughes, the self-portrait he would have shot back in 1993 would not have been a particularly cheerful one.
It was a time when he nearly lost his job at a large daily newspaper, in part, he said, because of his military service. From that point on, he was determined to disassociate himself from the military and avoid speaking about his Marine experience for his family’s sake.
But then he learned about a nonprofit advocacy organization serving veterans and active-duty service personnel. Curious, he volunteered that year to help out Rolling Thunder as a photographer chronicling its annual Washington Memorial Day event. Twenty years later, Mr. Hughes is an active Rolling Thunder national member and will be out on the streets of Washington once again this weekend, camera in hand, promoting the event and in particular, the campaign to keep alive the memory of American prisoners of war.
“The first year I went, I kind of stayed in the background but took a lot of pictures and met some people and thought, ’This was what I wanted to do,’” Mr. Hughes said. “I lost some of my best friends in Vietnam. And I know there were people who were left behind, even though our government said something different.”
This Memorial Day weekend, Mr. Hughes will be one of the hundreds of thousands of people who flock to the nation’s capital to be a part of Rolling Thunder’s 26th annual “Ride for Freedom.”
Rolling Thunder, dedicated in part to bringing awareness to POW/MIA issues, is run by volunteers who stand by their slogan, “We will not forget.” Mr. Hughes has actively campaigned to bring home Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, a POW who has been missing in Afghanistan since June 30, 2009. In March, on Sgt. Bergdahl’s 27th birthday, Mr. Hughes and several other veterans stood outside a Fox News television station in Philadelphia with a table and a birthday cake for him. The inscription on the cake: “Another unhappy birthday for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.”
“I have met his mom and dad and stayed in touch with his dad. So I really feel like I almost know their son, because of my relationship with the father of the family,” Mr. Hughes said.
He noted that the remains of POWs from other wars have been returned to their families.
“Years of waiting and hope and finally, despair, but at least they got the remains back,” he said. “Hopefully, some day we can bring back a living POW.”
The ride provides an environment of camaraderie for the gathered veterans and supporters, something Mr. Hughes said he badly needed when he first attended the event in 20 years ago. During his first Rolling Thunder, he met and forged a bond with several Australian Vietnam veterans, who have since passed away.
“I never thought I would go to Australia,” he said. “But I went there three times since I met them.”
Mr. Hughes, whose studio is in Glen Mills, Pa., near Philadelphia, is also committed to drawing the attention of American citizens, not just politicians, to the POW-MIA issue. He has flag poles on his property displaying the American, POW and Marine Corps flags. He has placed POW ads in his community publications, distributed free writing pads with the POW logo and encouraged neighbors to display the Stars and Stripes on Memorial Day weekends.
“In subtle ways, I try to educate people or enlighten them,” he said. “In a nice way, it’s not ’in your face.’ I occasionally do ask and I try not to hard sell. I just let them know what’s going on.”
Mr. Hughes said he met President Obama once and asked him if he was familiar with Sgt. Bergdahl’s plight. The president confirmed the sergeant was alive and remained a priority, according to Mr. Hughes.
“I’m hoping to meet him again and ask him why it’s taken so long to get Bowe back, when they’ve gotten back three hikers in Iran and sent Navy SEALs to get [American aid worker Jessica Buchanan] from Africa” in 2012, he said. “These are civilians and that’s fine. But why can’t you get back somebody who raised his hand to serve his country, [especially if] they know where he is. Why can’t they get him back?”
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