Vietnam Vet killed in motorcycle accident showed up for others

Vietnam vet who died in crash was dedicated to greeting returning soldiers

May 24, 2011 8:52 PM

Vietnam veteran David Fitzgerald saw the devastation on a soldier’s face when he wasn’t greeted home from the perils of war.

He vowed it would never happen again.

The 60-year-old Manitou Springs resident rode his burly tricycle on 140 missions the past couple years with the Colorado Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcyclists that greet soldiers when they return from tours overseas.

“When he liked something, he kind of went at something like he was killing snakes — all or nothing,” said his wife, Judith Fitzgerald.

But his time on that tricycle ended Thursday while on what was to have been one of his longest missions: A trip to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. called the Run for the Wall.

Fitzgerald, a two-time cancer survivor, lost control of his tricycle around 6:45 a.m. while exiting Interstate 25 in Albuquerque. He died at the scene of the crash; his passenger, Mark Gritton of Colorado Springs, survived.



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