Dog Tag Brigade motorcycle club hosts benefit ride to support local Honor Flight

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Dog Tag Brigade veteran motorcycle club hosted a charity bike ride in Johnson City to benefit the Honor Flight of the Appalachian Highlands on Saturday.

The group met at Tulip’s Grub and Pub, and each person participating donated $20 to the Honor Flight organization, which works to send veterans to Washington D.C. for free on an honorable vacation.

Lee Carmichael, president of Dog Tag Brigade, said he’s seen first hand how the Honor Flight supports local veterans. He said he hoped to see 50 to 60 bikes attend the event.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “We had one of our buddies, he took his pops up there and it was, he was a Vietnam Marine and it was a big, kind of a healing time for him. And it’s [a] time for those guys to get camaraderie, get back together. You know, some of them are never able to go up there (Washington D.C.).”

Carmichael said the Dog Tag Brigade is largely made up of veterans.

“We’re a 95% veteran club. Being a combat veteran myself, it means a lot for these other veterans to go up and see the monuments that are dedicated to them and their sacrifice to their brothers that they may have lost in combat, or the ones who, you know, never went to combat, doesn’t matter.”

More information on the Dog Tag Brigade veteran motorcycle club can be found on its Facebook group page. More information on the Honor Flight of the Appalachian Highlands can be found at Honorflightah.org.

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