More than 970 Americans honored our nation’s veterans this Memorial Day by participating in Run for the Wall, an annual 10-day coast-to-coast motorcycle ride from Ontario, California, to Washington, D.C.

RFTW, which started in 1989, was organized by Vietnam veteran Gunnery Sergeant James “Gunny” Gregory and a small group of fellow veterans to raise awareness for prisoners of war and those missing in action. It is the largest and longest-running organized cross-country motorcycle ride.

‘It restores my faith in America and in humanity.’

This year, riders departed from California on May 13 to take one of the RFTW’s three routes across the U.S. — Central, Midway, and Southern Routes — to reach the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in the nation’s capital on May 23, just a couple of days ahead of Memorial Day.

A fourth drive, known as the Sandbox Route, took riders from D.C. to the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Marseilles, Illinois, to pay respect to younger generations of veterans who served during the Global War on Terror.

As riders stop in cities along their routes, they are greeted by cheering locals who line the streets waving American flags. Gallup, New Mexico, a pitstop on the Central Route, hosts a large motorcycle parade through town, followed by a “Gathering of Veterans” ceremony and a dinner for the riders at Red Rock Park.

RFTW’s motto is “We ride for those who can’t.”

For each leg of the journey, riders honor the memory of a service member who was killed in action, missing, or held as a prisoner of war. They write the person’s name and branch of service in chalk on the ground and display a photo and a biography so others can stop by to pay their respects.

RELATED: A Marine’s Memorial Day message: Don’t forget the price

Image source: Run for the Wall

At the front of the pack, they ride in a Missing Man Formation, which involves five motorcycles with an empty space where a sixth bike should be to symbolize the missing serviceman’s absence. The photos and bios of the service members are brought to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and placed at the panel where their name is inscribed.

Ted “Boots” Kapner, the director of public relations for RFTW, told Blaze News that Memorial Day has taken on “a whole new meaning” for him since he started participating in the cross-country ride in 2017.

Kapner, who hosts the RFTW podcast, explained that during the show, he will read the biographies of individuals whose names are inscribed on a memorial wall.

“I feel like for every bio that I read on the podcast, I get to know them,” he stated, describing learning about their family and where they grew up. “I carry these bios with me and deliver them to the wall; it’s not just a barbecue and a celebration, it’s really a day of solemn remembrance.”

RELATED: Gold Star grief never ends — remember the fallen this Memorial Day

Image source: Run for the Wall

Kapner described reaching the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., with his fellow riders as “a cascade of emotions.”

“We’re all in tears, and we’re all there, arm in arm, supporting one another,” Kapner told Blaze News. “It’s a family. … It restores my faith in America and in humanity.”

“America is still a great nation, and it is our best hope. There comes a time when we all have to set aside our differences and know that we’re more alike than we are different,” he stated.

Kapner encouraged Americans to take time on Memorial Day to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

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Move over, citronella oils and sound emitters. It’s time to take mosquito repellant into the space age.

When nets, spray, and anti-mosquito pills are just not working, one company says it is almost ready ship a mosquito defense system that seems like it should be fitted on the Death Star.

‘When used as directed, there is no risk to adults, children, babies, or pregnant women.’

Just when technology seemingly couldn’t get any crazier, the Photon Matrix is a new product hoping to ship to consumers worldwide this summer.

Labeled the world’s first portable laser mosquito defense system, the Photon Matrix Lab team says its light detection and ranging system combined with an electromechanical measuring instrument — called a galvanometer — is the answer to ridding one’s back yard, cottage, or camping trip of mosquitoes.

The company promises that its “precision laser striking system” delivers an automated and chemical-free way to zap mosquitoes out of the sky as soon as they are within range.

The product works by shooting its laser at objects within an approximately 19-foot radius that are between 0.08 and 0.8 inches in size.

The device cannot kill houseflies, roaches, wasps, or moths, because they are larger and faster than mosquitoes, the company says. Therefore, it is also allegedly safe for operation around bees or butterflies, which have different flight patterns that the machine does not recognize.

RELATED: This new laser farming technique could free us from pesticides — forever

– YouTube

With obvious safety concerns as the first question, this Chinese company out of Changzhou City, China, says if a large pet or human comes into the target zone, the device will automatically stop shooting.

At the same time, the company claims the laser is very low power with extremely short pulse duration, so it would not cause burns even in the “extremely unlikely” event of direct skin exposure.

The company wrote, “When used as directed, there is no risk to adults, children, babies, or pregnant women.”

RELATED: America’s next-gen weapons face a down-to-earth foe: The elements

Francisco J. Olmo/Europa Press/Getty Images

The product is expected to ship in Q2-Q3 2026, which is listed as approximately July-August, currently priced at around $650 USD.

It does require monthly cleaning; users are instructed to clean the laser’s optical window to prevent dust buildup.

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​China, Lasers, Mosquitoes, Pests, Return, Tech 

For many Americans, Memorial Day is nothing more than a welcome day off of work to kick back and relax and maybe host a backyard barbeque.

But the true meaning of this holiday should stir deep gratitude and empathy in every American citizen. Memorial Day is set aside not for leisure but for reverence. It is about honoring and remembering the men and women of the armed forces who died while serving in the military.

Two years ago, Glenn Beck delivered an unforgettable message that is worth revisiting on this important day.

– YouTube

Glenn starts by telling a common story that only the parents of fallen soldiers will truly understand.

“If you will, try to imagine this in the first person, through the eyes of someone I’m about to describe,” he begins.

“Your son has been in the United States Marine Corps for what seems like forever now. … What begins as extreme worry and then turns to panic, then helplessness, then all time seems to stop. It’s as if you’re stranded in the loneliest cold of winter, with no daylight to help tell you the passage of time. It’s just you, your worry, and no end in sight,” he narrates.

Unbeknownst to you, your beloved son suddenly falls in combat. This immediately sets a precise military protocol in motion.

“This is what’s happening behind the scenes,” says Glenn. “First a death notification. It has to be executed within eight hours. A discreet attempt to locate you, the next of kin, is initiated so the officers chosen to deliver the notification arrive at the right place at the right time.”

“Three individuals are typically chosen to arrive at your home: an officer at least one rank higher than the deceased, a chaplain, and someone capable of delivering medical help should the next of kin pass out or worse,” he continues.

The parent, already sensing the gut-wrenching news, listens in horror as the officer delivers the following message: “The commandant of the Marine Corps has entrusted me to express his deep regret that your son John was killed in action on Friday, March 26. The commandant and the Marine Corps extend their deepest sympathy to you and your family in your loss.”

“This is the nightmare that thousands have had to endure, thousands fear could happen to them at any time,” says Glenn.

“312 parents experienced what I just described in 2003 alone; in 2007, 847 military men and women died in combat; in 2008, 352; in 2009, 346 — and the list and the numbers go on and on,” he recounts.

This Memorial Day, as we gather with friends and family, Glenn hopes that we will take time to remember the true meaning of this somber holiday.

“I’m not trying to be a downer here, but there is a sacredness to Memorial Day that most of us just cannot understand,” he says.

Glenn concludes by reading John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

“This weekend, remember the honor, the love of country, the families. Together they represent the absolute best of all of us.”

To hear Glenn deliver this touching monologue, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Rev. John Rosbrugh, the first U.S. Army chaplain killed in battle, was bayoneted 239 years ago in the midst of the withdrawal from the Battle of Assunpink Creek in the Revolutionary War.

In a 19th-century biography detailing the “life, labors, and death” of this “Clerical Martyr of the Revolution,” Rev. John Clyde emphasizes at the outset, “Amid all the light thrown upon his career socially, ecclesiastically, and politically — by tradition and historical record — nothing but the good he did lived after him, whilst the evil was interred with his bones — so far as known no blot rests on his fair name.”

‘Sabre slashes were made at his devoted head, three of which penetrated through the horsehair wig which he wore.’

Rosbrugh belonged to a Scottish family that migrated in the early 18th century to Northern Ireland. With his older brother William, Rosbrugh eventually moved to the American Colonies, settling in New Jersey, where at the age of 19, he married a woman named Sarah, who would tragically perish along with their baby during childbirth.

Although unable himself decades later to afford “that thorough education which was required of those who would enter the sacred office in his day,” the aspiring Presbyterian minister studied theology at the College of New Jersey — now Princeton University — with the help of financial aid and graduated in 1761.

Rosbrugh was ordained as a minister in 1764 at Greenwich Presbyterian Church in New Jersey.

The minister, whose recognition and responsibilities exploded in subsequent years, married again, this time to Jane Ralston of the Allen Township Presbyterian Church. Rosbrugh and Jane ultimately had five children — the eldest, James, would later serve as a militia captain in the War of 1812.

Long before his son would take up arms in defense of his country, Rosbrugh — “filled with the spirit of freedom” — decided to lead his congregants out of church and toward the battlefield.

According to Clyde, Rosbrugh assembled his congregation, urged them to satisfy the Continental Army’s request for reinforcements, quoted them Judges 5:23, and proposed that he join them as chaplain. The congregation was apparently keen to go — but only if he would be their commander. After some deliberation and receiving consent from his wife, Rosbrugh agreed.

RELATED: The crown laughed at our Declaration — but America got the last word

Gen. George Washington at the first Battle of Trenton. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

After penning his last will and testament, the minister “put a musket to his shoulder and marched out to the highway, and all fell into line and followed” Rosbrugh to join General George Washington in Philadelphia.

“The little boy James, rode the gray horse by his father’s side till they passed over the brow of the hill, just east of their home, as we suppose,” wrote Clyde. “Then the father took him from the horse, kissed him, and bade him go home to his mother, and be a good boy till he should return — he never saw his father’s face again.”

In Philadelphia, Rosbrugh assumed, as he intended from the start, the role of company chaplain and was replaced as commander by Capt. John Hays. The previous year, the Continental Congress authorized one chaplain for each regiment of the Continental Army with pay equaling that of a captain.

Rosbrugh’s tenure as a chaplain in Washington’s army was short-lived. Just days after the Battle of Trenton, where Washington — having just crossed the Delaware River — led a momentous victory against Hessian auxiliaries, the chaplain breathed his last.

Clyde noted that there are varying accounts of how the chaplain perished but held that the most trustworthy version has that the chaplain — whose company partook in the Battle of Assunpink Creek — unwittingly lingered behind at the eponymous site of the Second Battle of Trenton while the patriot army withdrew.

On Jan. 2, 1777, Rosbrugh tied up his horse outside a pub, then went inside for refreshments only to hear someone cry, “The Hessians are coming.”

The 63-year-old chaplain rushed outside to find that his horse had been stolen, then attempted to make his escape on foot, only to run into a small group of Hessians under the command of a British officer.

Clyde explained what reportedly happened next:

Seeing that further attempt at escape was useless, he surrendered himself a prisoner of war. Having done so, he offered to his captors his gold watch and money if they would spare his life for his family’s sake. Notwithstanding these were taken, they immediately prepared to put him to death. Seeing this, he knelt down at the foot of a tree and, it is said, prayed for his enemies. Now seventeen bayonet thrusts were made at his body, and one bayonet was left broken off in his quivering frame. Sabre slashes were made at his devoted head, three of which penetrated through the horsehair wig which he wore.

The stone monument erected in Rosburgh’s memory at Hanover Academy in Trenton states, “Clerical Martyr of the Revolution[.] Moderator of the Presbytery of New Brunswick 1776[.] Chaplain 3d Battalion Northampton County PA Militia December 25, 1776[.] Bayoneted to death by Hessians in Trenton January 2, 1777.”

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​History, Hessians, Rosbrugh, Presbyerian, Chaplain, Chaplaincy, Religion, Christian, Faith, Revolution, Revolutionary war, War of american independence, George washington, Memorial day, Politics