Gold Star 500 bicyclists to reach Rock Falls as midpoint of endurance ride to honor the fallen

Jeremy Tackett, a major in the Illinois Army National Guard, finishes five-day, 500-mile the Gold Star 500 on Sept. 28, 2019, in Wheaton. This year, the ride will be held from Sept. 20 to 24, and will make a stop in Rock Falls.

ROCK FALLS — Participants in the Gold Star 500 five-day endurance bicycle ride are scheduled to begin arriving at the Rock Falls National Guard Armory sometime Thursday afternoon.

Scheduled arrival is 4:45 p.m. at the armory, which is at 716 Sixth Ave.

It is, in fact, the midpoint of the journey for the cyclists, who left the North Readiness Center at Camp Lincoln in Springfield on Tuesday.

They rode from there to Quincy National Guard Armory. The second leg, on Wednesday, took them to the Galesburg National Guard Armory.

From Rock Falls, the cyclists will go to the Woodstock National Guard Armory on Friday and arrive at the Great Lakes Community Center around 1:45 p.m. on Saturday.

The Gold Star 500 is an endurance event to honor the service and sacrifice of 300 Illinois service members, including 34 from the Illinois National Guard, who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The contingent of bicyclists includes members of the Illinois National Guard, veterans and more than two dozen representatives and family members of the Poland military. The ride is part of the State Partnership Program with Poland established in 1993.

During the ride, participants will read the names of fallen soldiers at stops along the route closest to the survivors’ location.

Members of the Guard being honored were 15 who were killed in Iraq and 19 killed in Afghanistan. Eighteen of the 34 were part of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009. The fallen include Guard members ranging in age from 19 to 59. Five of them were women.

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