US Soldier’s bike stolen while on 3rd tour in Iraq. Let’s help him out!!!

[RM_guy]

A few weeks ago there was an editorial on the local paper from the mother of a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq in the Army 10th Mountain Division. She was disgusted that someone stole her son’s Yamaha YZ250 that he purchased, while on leave this past summer, with his hazard pay. It was stolen while he is on his 3rd tour in Bagdad. The soldier, Michael Bidwell, is 22 years old.

I have never met Michael but I was pissed that this happened and recently found out that a fund has been set up to get him a new bike though a local dealer. $1000 has been collect so far with a goal of $5700. Here’s a link to the article in the paper: http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612140420

I am asking that my DRN friends donate what they can to help the cause. This guy is risking his life for our country and this is the thanks he gets. I want to show him that is IS appreciated.

You can either send me a donation through PayPal to ewoh@netzero.net (put Michael Bidwell’s bike fund in the subject line) and I will get the money in the fund or you can send a check directly to his mother at:

Diane Croop
253 Quinleven Road
Newark Valley, N.Y. 13811

I plan on explaining who DRN is when I send the money so if you chose to mail a check directly please do the same.

Thank you

 

[RM_guy]

I was contacted by one of the fund's organizers and he has created a web site for this http://mikesbike1.tripod.com/ Please check it out.

What ever you can do will be greatly appreciated.

 

[IndyMX]

So, punish this guy twice. One for volunteering to serve his country and two for going to Iraq for a third tour. Makes it right in the world to steal his bike??? Takes a lot of character to do what he's done. In all honesty, it does not matter who started this war, that's irrelevant. The least any of us can do for him is to dig deep into our pockets, or ashtrays, and give...he most certainly has. And before you go off on any diatribe, keep this in perspective, I enlisted before you were even born and am still serving to this day. So, until you've served or looked any of the men and women who have and returned with less than what they left with, I'm afraid you just wouldn't understand the ultimate sacrifices they've made. So go ahead and punish the elected officials if you must; not those on the front lines...they've suffered enough.

Thanks for serving.

I was also enlisted before he was born, but I also was out before he stopped sh!tin his pants..

 

[84cr125flyer]

You are welcome and thanks for your service as well :cool: ...Cheers

 

[Mully]

Guys and Girls,

I deleted several posts in this thread and I do believe you all know why. Nothing against any of you, just the one dillweed.

Mully

 

[bsmith]

I didn't see any of the deleted posts, but can guess they were not on topic!

RM-Guy, how much time do we have? I still got 8 people to shop for Christmas, but once I'm done I'll know what I have left over.

Thanks for letting us know!

 

[FruDaddy]

Guys and Girls,

I deleted several posts in this thread and I do believe you all know why. Nothing against any of you, just the one dillweed.

Mully

I clearly know why, and am not surprised. I just hope he got to see it first. I wouldn't have posted if it hadn't infuriated me so. Perhaps I should subscribe so I can PM this type of thing next time. Feel free to delete this post as well.

On the topic of the soldier that had his bike stolen, I am always skeptical of this type of thing, it's easy to lie, so I did a bit of research.

First, the news article appears legit, the site and apparently the newspaper belongs to the same company that owns USA Today. I Googled the paper to search the site, to make sure it wasn't a spoofed article. Phishers are good at cloning sites. Basically, the only way that I can see this being a con game, is if the person sending the story into the paper was lying, and I would hope that the newspaper checked that out.

I said all of that to say this, help this mother out in any way you can. This man deserves more respect than he has gotten, and should come home to the motorcycle that he risked his life to earn the money to buy.

 

[Mully]

All of his were deleted because he is a dillweed. Some of the rest of them were deleted because there were quotes by him within the post. Again, the rest of you did nothing wrong, it was just the way I had to clean up this thread.

Merry Christmas to all of you. :)

Mully

 

[IndyMX]

All of his were deleted because he is a dillweed. Some of the rest of them were deleted because there were quotes by him within the post. Again, the rest of you did nothing wrong, it was just the way I had to clean up this thread.

Merry Christmas to all of you. :)

Mully

Doing a fine job as always neighbor!

 

[Boomeroo]

i really feel bad for this guy, 1 he just bought a brand new bike and cant ride it becasue hes in Irag, and now he cant becasue some loser stole it from him. who does that.

 

[RM_guy]

Hey Mully, thanks for cleaning things up ;) I can only imagine what was going on.

Sorry I haven't been on for a while. This is all legit. I have been in contact with the guy who started the fund (Jeremy Slottje) and he has already financed a new bike for Mike so he could have it to ride now. That was pretty damn generous and I told him so. The dealer let the bike go for $5200 instead of $5700 so that was good but there is still a long way to go. There is $1000 towards it so far.

There is no time limit and I will let you know when the goal has been met but if we go over I don’t see a problem. Mike is over there fighting for OUR safety and this is the least he deserves.

Merry Christmas!

 

[RM_guy]

Here's a picture of Mike with the bike that got stolen. Thanks KNOWIAM. I will make sure your donation gets to Mike's fund.

 

[RM_guy]

Bump.

2 donations to date including mine. For those of you that chose to anonymously send a donation directly to Mike's mom, Thank you!

 

[KX250Dad]

Admittedly when I first read the the post my mind set was in alignment with FruDaddy. Having visited this post a second time and viewing Fru's homework/research I might suggest leving it on the post. Rm_guy... I consider it a prevlidge to help. Been there and back and getting this kind of money together a second time on an enlisted man's pay (?) can be quite a challange. 1973/82nd/ABN/4thBtl/68th Armor just couldn't let 84cr125flyer and IndyYZ85 think they're the only vet's that can read.

 

[knowiam]

:cool:

 

[RM_guy]

Thanks guys.

and thanks to sparkysakitas. Any amount will help and is greatly appreciated!

 

[sparkysakitas]

no problem :cool:
tell mike ty for serving for us

 

[RM_guy]

Bump...