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FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas - The movie Easy Rider inspired people to hit the open road in search of adventure on a two-wheeled machine. The Fort Sam Houston Rough Riders are hitting the open road to inspire safety. The nationally recognized club is featured on the Combat Readiness Center website under the link, "Motorcycle Mentorship Program."
On Nov. 16, 2007, the Fort Sam Rough Riders headed for Marble Falls, Texas to promote Soldier safety with an enjoying ride through the hill country.
"The Fort Sam Rough Rider's biggest thing is promoting motorcycle mentorship, and making sure people are safe riders," said Lt. Col. Peter Malik, Commander of the Special Troops Battalion at US Army South and safety officer for the Rough Riders.
"This ride was the largest that we've had so far. Fifty-six people participated, including great cooperation from the Fort Sam Houston Federal Police and the San Antonio Police. The sergeant who was helping me with all this, Rhoden Galloway, got great accolades from those who participated. He did a great job with this," said Lt. Col. Malik.
Units from Fort Sam who participated included US Army South, 232nd Medical, A-377th, ACA, B-187th, C-187th, C-264th and D-187th. "General Huber extended the invitation in a show of sharing our motorcycle safety program and stressing the importance of safety," said Lt. Col. Malik.
Lt. Col. Malik also said that because there is a big turn around with units, the Rough Riders want to indentify new riders who are coming in and mentors who can help new riders.
"When we get new personnel coming in, we want to hook them up with a mentor so they can improve their riding. We are going to change the requirements; it used to be you had to ride so many miles. Now we want them to do one ride with a mentor, because one ride can tell you a lot. The mentor can then tell them to work on this or that when it comes to riding," said Lt. Col. Malik.
Lt. Col. Malik also said the spring initiative for safety will be a motorcycle rodeo which stresses technique and safety in a friendly competition.
"We just want to make sure we keep our numbers down and we continue our safe riding policy. Overall, the number of accidents in the military has decreased and we want to keep that going," Lt. Col. Malik.
Sgt. 1st Class. Rhoden Galloway, the US Army South STB S-1 Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge, has been riding off and on all his life.
"We got a really good response from everybody we had to coordinate with, including the Provost Marshal. Evans Theatre was very helpful, so there was a lot of supportive behavior from everybody here on post and that was appreciated because it just made the program go a lot smoother," said Galloway.
"The ride was very smooth, it went quite well. We were escorted off-post in three chalks. Once we got off-post onto Walters Road, we got some assistance from SAPD and some affiliates like the Blue Knights, which is a riding group for SAPD. Everybody was able to stay together and we hardly had any trouble," said Galloway.
Galloway said he would like to get more of the riders on post involved in the group.
"I get random hits every now and again. I'll run into somebody on a bike and start talking to them. I'll ask them if they are doing a mentorship program within their unit and usually they say no. So it's those onesies and twosies that I'd like to capture," said Galloway.
"I guess we need to advertise a little bit better," Galloway said with a smile.
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 02.11.2008 11:10 |
| Story ID: | 16227 |
| Location: | FORT SAM HOUSTON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 1,125 |
| Downloads: | 872 |
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