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Flag ceremony makes
impact on students
The Leaf-Chronicle • November 12,
2009
Clarksville
Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club celebrates one
year of Dedicated Service to the Montgomery Care Rehabilitation
Center.
Clarksville, Tn -
Leaf-Chronicle Newspaper (29 Sep. 2009)
On
Saturday, the Clarksville, Tn. Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers
Motorcycle Club celebrated one year of dedicated service to the
Montgomery Care Rehabilitation Center located on Old Farmers
Road, Clarksville, Tn. The celebration included a dedication
ceremony where the Rehabilitation Center was presented with a
framed 9th and 10th Buffalo Soldier
Calvary guidon. During the celebration, each resident was
presented with a personalized photo collage highlighting the
various events the Buffalo soldiers shared with each resident
over the past year. Some of the events seen in the photo
collage included playing Bingo, Birthday Cake and Ice cream,
Cook-out, Biker rodeo (where the residents presented the
awards), Christmas gifts, and lots of entertainment.
Every month for the past year the motorcycle club goes to the
Rehabilitation Center to play games, celebrate the month’s
birthdays and spread cheer to the residents. According to James
Webb (Chapter President with the ride name of Papa) “Jonas
Cloud, a.k.a. ICE, our Chapter Vice President presented the idea
to the Club last year with the goal of providing cheer and
encouragement to the residents residing at the center. What we
received in return was far greater – Friendship.”
The
Buffalo Soldiers whose motto is “We Can, We Will” and “Ready
Forward” are committed to continue this relationship and are
honored to be accepted and appreciated by the residents.
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Buffalo
Soldiers on the road again keeping Clarksville Clean
Clarksville, Tn - Leaf-Chronicle Newspaper
(20 Sep 09)
![IMG_2357[1]](News%20and%20media_files/image004.jpg)
After returning home from their
National Association Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle
clubs 10th Anniversary Celebration in New Orleans, and an 1162
mile bike ride, the Clarksville’s Chapter of Buffalo Soldiers
Motorcycle Club is on the road again, but this time it’s picking
up trash along Martin Luther King Parkway. The Buffalo Soldiers
Motorcycle Club adopted the 3.1 mile section of the parkway last
year extending from I-24 exit 11 to Wal-Mart. On last Saturday
members of the Buffalo Soldiers motorcycle club and one member
of their Junior Buffalo Soldiers program took a few minutes to
pose for a photo after policing the 3.1 miles of parkway.
(Photo back row: Alim Faisal, Cedric Reid, Jonas Cloud, Foster
Goodman, (front row), Silke Webb, BJ Little, Kiyanna West,
Carroll Wilfred, Linwood Haynes and James Webb
Local
Motorcycle Club recognized by Army Chief of Staff
Clarksville, Tn - Leaf-Chronicle Newspaper (16 Aug 09)
Six members of the Clarksville Tennessee Chapter of the National
Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club (NABSTMC)
recently received recognition from the United States Army Chief
of Staff, General George W. Casey Jr. recognized the Buffalo
Soldiers for their participation in the recent cross country
escort of three American heroes. One Medal of Honor recipient
and two Silver Star recipients’ remains were escorted from
Phoenix, AZ and Sacramento, CA to their final resting place at
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington Virginia. Securing the
interments at Arlington was the work of the Mr. Fred “Ducpho”
Salanti, Executive Director of Missing in America Project (MIAP).
In 2006 he became aware that all over the country unclaimed
remains of veterans sat on shelves in crematoriums and
mortuaries. Those veterans never made it to the cemetery and he
asked himself, "How can we let this happen?" As a result,
Salanti founded MIAP, the non-profit organization that locates,
identifies and inters the remains of veterans. Salanti an Army
veteran who fought in the jungle of
Vietnam for two years felt the deceased were due the
honor and respect for the service to their country. Because many
funeral homes are still not
aware of MIAP and may have veteran remains, Salanti says, "We
still need to look." Additional information on the MIAP can be
found on the website
www.miap.us.
Participants received a Personal Letter
and Certificate of Appreciation for their service to community
and country. Participants recognized (back row from left to
right) Cedric Reid, Jonas Cloud, Ray Cruell (front row), Carroll
Wilfred, Albert Jones, and not pictured Ross Turner.
Heroes Burial at Arlington National Cemetery
Clarksville, Tn - Leaf-Chronicle Newspaper (7
June 09)
Six members of
the Clarksville Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of
Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club (NABSTMC) joined
the ranks of thousands of motorcycle riders to honor the legacy
of three American heroes. The Missing in America Project (MIAP)
had the primary responsibility for the entire transportation
across the country. Accompanied by the NABSTMC and the Old
Guard Riders, the cremated remains of three Honored Veterans
were transported for final burial at Arlington National Cemetery
in Arlington, VA.
The journey started on May 20, 2009 in
Sacramento California with several motorcycle groups and
individual riders riding hundreds of mile with escorts from
local and state police. The remains of Navy Silver Star
Recipients Boatswain Mate First Class Johnnie Franklin Callahan
and Army Specialist James William Dunn originated in Sacramento,
CA.
The cremated remains of Buffalo Soldier and
Medal of Honor Recipient Corporal Isaiah Mays started in
Phoenix, AZ and was escorted to Topeka, Kansas by the Phoenix,
AZ Buffalo Soldiers MC. Both groups then met in Topeka and
travelled together to Arlington National Cemetery for final
interment on Friday, 29 May 2009.
The three veterans were of three
different wars.
Isaiah
Mays
born in 1858, a
Buffalo Soldier
in the
Indian War
was a recipient of the
Medal of Honor.
He received a pauper's burial at the Arizona State Hospital
where he had been wrapped in a sheet and buried in the ground
without a casket or headstone for 78 years. Johnnie
Franklin Callahan's ashes remained with his grandson while his
family sought, in vain to have Callahan interred at
Arlington.
Callahan served in the Navy during
World
War II
and received a
Silver Star,
the nation's third highest award for combat valor. Callahan
picked up a live bomb dropped by a Japanese bomber on the deck
of his ship and threw it overboard. James William Dunn
fought in the
Vietnam War
and like Callahan earned a
Silver Star Medal.
As a combat medic, he ignored his own safety repeatedly to help
injured troops in the midst of battle. His daughter lovingly
accompanied his remains to Arlington.
Securing the interments at Arlington
was the work of the Mr. Fred “Ducpho” Salanti, Executive
Director of MIAP. In 2006 he became aware that all over the
country unclaimed remains of veterans sat on shelves in
crematoriums and mortuaries. Those veterans never made it to the
cemetery and he asked himself, "How can we let this happen?"
As a result, Salanti founded MIAP, the non-profit organization
that locates, identifies and inters the remains of veterans.
Salanti an Army veteran who fought in the jungle of
Vietnam
for two years felt the deceased were due the honor and respect
for the service to their country. Because many
funeral
homes
are still not aware of MIAP and may have veteran remains,
Salanti says, "We still need to look." Additional
information on the MIAP can be found on the website
www.miap.us.
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Clarksville, Tn., Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club
Adopts-A-Highway
Clarksville, Tn - Leaf-Chronicle Newspaper (8 Nov
08)
Currently,
the Clarksville Chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers has an active membership of
27 members, which consists of full members (7) , probationary members (10)
and associate members (10). Each member has a passion for excellence, is
dedicated and motivated to give back to our communities. With some of it’s
members living outside of the Clarksville community, the bredth of this
support spans as far away as Nashville, Tn. One of the most recent
commitments this club has made is a quarterly litter pick-up along the
Martin Luther King blvd (Highway 79) which is directly off exit 11 of I-24.
As a result, the city’s Adopt-A-Highway program displays a marker at each
end of the Highway which reads “Adopt A Highway, Next 3.1 Miles, Buffalo
Soldiers Motorcycle Club”. Through efforts like this, the club hopes to
instill pride in our community and to be a positive role model for the
youth.
Earlier this year,
the chapter "adopted" the Montgomery County
Care and Rehab Center on Old Farmers Road, vowing to be there when the
residents need it most. To signify the partnership, the chapter donated many
items the residents can use to break everyday monotony.
Motorcycle Club adopts county rehab center
Adoption marks further Philantrophy for group
By Jack Lowery - The Leaf Chronicle
( 21 Sep 08)
 The
Clarksville chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle
Club has been in existence for only about nine months
but has already been across the country performing
philanthropy work.
Saturday was no different. The chapter "adopted"
the Montgomery County Care and Rehab Center on Old
Farmers Road, vowing to be there when the residents need
it most.
To signify the partnership, the chapter donated many
items the residents can use to break everyday monotony.
"Things just to make for entertainment and the
patients more relaxed," said chapter President James
"Papa" Webb.
In recognition of their efforts, Mayor Pro Tem
Barbara Johnson presented the chapter with a Mayor's
Certificate, to which the chapter responded with one of
its coveted coins.
(Click here for full story)
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John McDaniel aka Thriller
Buffalo Soldier On A Mission
It took more than seven years of perseverance and faith for John
McDaniel, 44, to complete his lifelong dream of completing college.
McDaniel lost all function in his kidneys in 1999 due to advanc ed
renal failure, so when he enrolled at Lipscomb in 2001, he could
only attend classes two days a week because he must go to dialysis
three times a week in order to stay alive.
In addition to those constraints, the retired military veteran
commutes from Clarksville, and serves as an associate minister in a
Clarksville church. Despite a bout with a cancerous tumor in 2005
and a history of congestive heart failure, McDaniel has only missed
one semester in seven years due to his health.
God has certainly taken care of him, he said, noting that at one
time he was on both the kidney and heart transplant lists. God
miraculously healed his heart condition, McDaniel said, and dialysis
has kept him going strong with no kidney function.
His says his mother, who fought and beat cancer when McDaniel was
just 13, provided a lot of the inspiration to keep him in school
when everything began to wear on his weak body. “Watching how she
endured that, it made me who I am today,” he said. “When I wanted to
give up, I would often think of her. ”And he thinks of his daughter.
“There have been several times when I said, ‘I’m not going back.’
But the next semester, I was back again. I had to keep pressing on,
especially because my daughter, a junior at TSU, was determined to
graduate before me, and I could have never lived that one down!”
McDaniel earned his associate’s degree from St. Leo University as
a young man before joining the U.S. Navy in 1982. He met his wife in
Iceland, and worked as an air traffic controller in the Navy.
He was diagnosed with renal failure in 1999 and knew that his
kidneys would completely fail him within 10 years. He was inspired
to go into social work by his experience at the Veterans
Administration with a social worker who was less than compassionate
to him during his early illness.
“I bring life experience, and I posses the compassion to advocate
for those who cannot advocate for themselves,” McDaniel said of his
new social work skills. “I have a passion to see people overcome,
and I have the resiliency to never give up. I’m always able to smile
and know there is always another tomorrow.”
McDaniel is the kind of man who inspired others, said Arthur. She
tells the story of a fellow student of McDaniel’s who was so touched
by his determination in the face of such health problems that she
went to be tested to see if she could donate him one of her kidneys.
“He has that kind of effect on people,” Arthur said.
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