Thunder Truck Officially "Retired"

Our beloved Thunder Truck is now officially "retired."  Retired in November 2007.  We thought we would keep these pictures on our web site to memorialize all of the hard work, time, money and effort that many of our members put into bringing this wonderful truck into being (so to speak).

A Little History of the Life of our Thunder Truck

The life of the Thunder Truck began when our former Chapter President, Mr. Dick White, one of our Vietnam Veteran heroes, came up with the idea of using a highly visible vehicle to further push the POW/MIA message to the public.  Several years ago, Mr. White approached Mr. Buster Terry, Fleet Manager, Interstate Brands Corporation - known around Akron as The Wonder Bread Corporation.  Through the efforts of Mr. White and the generous support of Mr. Buster Terry and Interstate Brands Corporation, a used bread truck was donated to Ohio Chapter 2 for the sole purpose of getting the POW/MIA issues to the public.  Mr. White's leadership, along with his mechanical and body work skills, and supported with a lot of elbow grease from Ohio Chapter 2 members, transformed our Thunder Truck into the vision that you see in the pictures above.

Mr. White's vision is well known in our community.  His dedication to our local POW/MIAs is symbolized on the left side of the Thunder Truck.  The left side of the Thunder Truck lists all of the names of service men and women listed as POW/MIA from Ohio and Pennsylvania.  When one of our heroes is returned home, a gold star is placed by the soldier's name to indicate that the soldier has been "Welcomed Home" and returned to loved ones.

The Thunder Truck participated in numerous annual, localized parades and has participated in the annual "Run to the Wall" POW/MIA event in Washington, D.C.