BY CHERYL CONWAY STAFF WRITER

MOUNT OLIVE - The All-Veterans Memorial in Budd Lake and Rolling Thunder National advocacy group is partnering in its efforts to honor prisoners of war and service members missing in action, and provide some TLC to a local treasurethe AVM.

Every third Friday of September, for the past 15 years, the AVM has been hosting the annual National POW/MIA 24-hour vigil. While Rolling Thunder National has been attending for the past five years as participants in either reading names of soldiers, or as spectators, the organization will now be co-sponsors of the event.

The AVM/RT National POW/MIA 24 Hour Vigil is set to be held Friday, Sept. 15 through Saturday, Sept. 16 at the AVM. Both non-profit 501©3 organizations are excited for the collaboration.

“The AVM and Rolling Thunder and its many individual chapter’s mission is to never forget those who were either prisoners of war or missing in action and to educate the public of that fact,” says AVM Founder Charlie Wood Uhrmann.

“The AVM’s POW/MIA/PTSD Remembrance Wall, grounds and elements were created specifically to remember and honor the New Jersey warriors that never returned home.”

It only makes sense to work together since both groups have the same purpose.

“I think this is going to be a mutually beneficial relationship for both organizations,” says Bonnie Blackwell, SPC U.S. Army Combat Veteran and member of Rolling Thunder Chapter 6 N.J.

As the liaison between the AVM and Rolling Thunder, Blackwell says, “This is an amazing opportunity for us to work together to take care of the AVM, honor our Veterans, their families, and the Rolling Thunder members who support them. Teamwork makes the dream work.”

As part of the co-sponsored event, Rolling Thunder will host an annual Honor Run,

a fundraiser which involves members of Rolling Thunder Chapters who will ride their motorcycles and convene at the AVM as a demonstration to honor fallen service members. Blackwell, of Fredon, who also served as an Operation

“There was talk of possibly moving the monument further back off route 46 and I was extremely concerned that it wasn’t just placed somewhere to get it out of the way,” says Dunkle. When she learned about Wood’s Eagle Scout project and talk of a veteran’s park with different features, she contacted Uhrmann, who established a committee that was instrumental in getting the monument moved.

“Charlie had secured the area next to the Seward Mansion,” recalls Dunkle, president of the Mt. Olive Township Historical Society.

The obstacle was they needed a “change of use” at Turkey Brook Park in Budd Lake which was supposed to be all soccer and sports fields, explains Uhr- mann. Mayor Rob Greenbaum and the Mt. Olive Twp. Council passed a resolution on May 23, 2006, approving a New Veterans of All Wars Memorial at Turkey Brook Park. The resolution specified that the AVM would have three elements: Wood’s flag burning unit with vault for ashes and his flagpole; an expanded Veterans of All Wars Memorial to include pavers and other artistic elements under the supervision of Uhrmann; and the relocation if the existing war memorial. The township “provided us with 1.3 acres of property,” says Uhrmann. “We were so excited to have it, but we had to make

PLEASE SEE ALL VETERAN’S PAGE 6

Retired Budd Lake Woman Hikes Appalachian Trail

Joint Guardian (Military Police Officer) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF lll-Mechanic), came up with the idea of the Honor Run.

“The idea for this agreement

PLEASE SEE ROLLING THUNDER, PAGE 4

Hackettstown, Allison Bahr; Budd Lake, Elissa Radvansky; Flanders. Mr. Moe was hiding in the

Panther Valley, Berk’s, White Space, Beaumont, Flanders Bagel and Army National Guard. Thanks

MOUNT OLIVE - Many people have goals and dreams when they are young but a good majority most likely kick it to the dirt and take a different path.

But not Jennifer Tull of Budd Lake. After working 23 years in human resources and information technology at Merck, Tull retired in August 2022 and is finally realizing her dream — to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“I am hiking the entire Appalachian Trail which begins on Springer Mountain in Georgia and ends on Mt. Katahdin in Maine,” says Tull, who turns 60 in June.

“I have wanted to hike this entire trail since I knew it existed when I was about 12 years old,” she says. “I went to a YMCA summer camp, and we backpacked a small section of the AT. I have wanted to hike the entire thing since then.”

She decided to start her hike on February 14, ironically the day of love. Like Cupid with a pointed arrow, she aims at reaching her destination in early August.

According to Tull, the Ap- palachian Trail has been around since 1937 and is 2,198.4 miles long. She was on mile 534 when she was resting at a hostel in Marion, Va., to answer these questions about her six-month journey.

A resident of Budd Lake for a dozen years, Tull has been hiking weekly for the past seven years.

“My most challenging trip by far was hiking 170 miles of the Long Trail in VT,” she mentions. “I hiked that in September of last year to prepare for hiking the AT. That remains harder than anything I have done yet on the Appalachian Trail.”

She hikes primarily with Metrotrails, which is a hiking group based in Warren County that hikes every week in the area, but also plans trails in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and even Maryland. She also hikes with Hudson Valley Hikers and the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Her current adventure is called an Appalachian Trail