On September 15, 2014 my friend and fellow Marine Michael Mead passed away. I served with Mike from Crew Chief Candidate School all the way through school and we even drove cross country to check into the fleet together at HMH-361 in Miramar, California.   He was an outstanding Marine and was always someone you could turn to for help. I can’t tell you the number of late nights we put in together the first two years in the fleet. We would come in before day crew and leave with night crew. Before deploying for Iraq he was selected to become a weapons and tactics instructor for our unit and was given the responsibility of handling all of the training and scheduling for the crew chiefs in our unit.

 As my a trusted friend and also roommate in Iraq we spent many a night talking about life and what we wanted to do in the future.  Mike seemed to be accomplishing all of his goals. He became an architect and had a beautiful fiancé who he was going to be marrying this summer. That is why it came as such a surprise when I got the phone call that he had taken his life last summer.  Sadly he became one of the 22 veterans that take their lives every single day. It was heartbreaking to say the least.

Since his passing there has been some financial hardships endured by his family. After a lengthy legal battle in Kentucky Mike is finally going to be returned home to be laid to rest in New York, where he grew up, and called home. 

 I am going to be riding in the Madison Honor ride on June 20th and the Barrington Honor Ride in August. I will be attempting the 70  and 45 mile distances. I want to dedicate my rides to Mike and his family by raising some money so that I can help his family pay off some of the debt they have incurred during this process. No family should have to go through something like this. Let’s show them some love.

 

Thank you