{"id":128020,"date":"2022-07-18T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=128020"},"modified":"2022-07-17T20:27:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T00:27:47","slug":"buffalo-soldiers-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=128020","title":{"rendered":"“Buffalo Soldiers” convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Okay, I have to admit having mixed feelings on this group.<\/p>\n

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That organization, the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers & Troopers Motorcycle Club, held its annual convention in Hampton this week.<\/p>\n

Helping others is core to the club\u2019s mission, Thomas said Saturday. They also aim to tell the story of the Buffalo Soldiers \u2014 Black members of the U.S. Cavalry who protected the west as the country expanded, beginning in 1866. The club\u2019s members come from a wide range of professions and have an average age of 63.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of these individuals,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThis organization gave these mature individuals something to do. It gave them something to live for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan \u201cMotown\u201d Mack, the group\u2019s president, rode his motorcycle for three days, including 18 hours in the rain, from El Paso, Texas. He said the club chose Hampton because of the need in the community. That\u2019s one of the driving factors in the decision to pick a venue each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just here to help in any way we can,\u201d he said. More than 1,500 of the club\u2019s several thousand members signed up for the Hampton convention. They delivered food to residents of Bay Creek Apartments, a low income housing complex, and donated $10,000 to the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank.<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Soldiers name was chosen to keep alive a largely untold history. The solders were paid less than their white counterparts and their equipment was in worse condition, Mack said. When a new member joins, they are required to learn about one of the Buffalo Soldiers, said Lawrence \u201cCaptain Hook\u201d Van Hook, the national chaplain. And they name a toy buffalo or a bugle after the person they selected.<\/p>\n

But the history is complicated: the Buffalo Soldiers fought Native Americans. \u201cThey just did what they were told,\u201d and carried out the orders of the government, Mack said. It wasn\u2019t \u201csomething that they all wanted to do, (but) something that they had to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Daily Press via Yahoo<\/a><\/p>\n

So three things jump out at me:<\/p>\n

1) I like what they are doing, and admire the dedication to do things like doing that food drive across the country and talking to those kids.<\/p>\n

2) ‘The history is complicated’ – you would think men in their ’60s would include a decent percentage of vets. Even if not, they should know that the politicians choose who we fight, not us. And at that time, the Army fought Indians (sorry, Native Americans). It was the job. No commander randomly said “well, we need someone to pick on. The French are too far away, Mexicans have their own problems… damn, who do we kill today?” It just doesn’t work like that.<\/p>\n

3) If you are going to teach the history, teach the RIGHT history. Beside the Cavalry (9th and 10th Cav, to be precise) there were two Infantry units, the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments. Gotta give some love and props to the Infantry, now. (Any unit which would ride 110 pound bicycles from Idaho to St. Louis before roads gets MY respect. And 20 of the 25th did just that in 1897.)<\/p>\n

I get the black-so-Buffalo connection and like what they do. I’m not so wild about civilians who may have never served calling themselves Buffalo Soldiers or Troopers (unless maybe they are former Highway Patrol.) To me it’s a hallowed name, and it rubs me as raw as a bunch of bikers calling themselves Screaming Eagles. What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I have to admit having mixed feelings on this group. That organization, the National Association … “Buffalo Soldiers” convention<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328,385],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diversity","category-exploitation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}