Veteran drops off long lost military medals to family

Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA (August 6, 2019) — A collection of military medals lost over time is now back where it belongs. The “shadow box” was found for sale for $99 in a thrift shop in Florida. John Hilfirty, an Air Force veteran from North Carolina, embarked on a personal mission to get the box back home to Wisconsin.

Hilfirty says his friend in Pensacola, Florida came across the shadow box and posted a picture of it on Facebook. The box contained number medals and honors as well as a name plate.

“It immediately touched me, so I told him to go back and buy it,” said Hilfirty.

The box belongs to United States Air Force Senior Staff Sergeant Edward Holloway. Holloway served for more than 20 years in the Air Force from 1970-1991. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005 due to cancer. His shadow box got lost after his death.

“He loved being in the service, it was really who he was,” said Heather Breunig, Holloway’s niece.

When Hilfirty came across the box, he decided to track down Holloway’s family.

“So we went to work using Google and Facebook,” he said. “We were able to track down his father’s obituary and we started pulling names out of that,”

His research led him to Breunig who lives in Baraboo.

“He didn’t have children. I am his niece but he treated me like a daughter,” she said.

Breunig received a Facebook message from Hilfirty, but Breunig was skeptical and ignored his message. But Hilfirty wouldn’t give up. He reached out to her adult children which caught her attention. Breunig finally decided to trust her instincts.

“I have a really big heart and I like to think there is good people in the world and I believe this is the real deal,” she said.

After about a month of messaging online, Hilfirty decided to make the trip to Wisconsin to drop off the shadow box in person. That meeting took place at the Municipal building in Baraboo on Monday.

“I have (my own) shadow box, it’s very similar so I would expect…I would hope that my family would want to keep that as a memento,” said Hilfirty.

Hilfirty and several of his friends from the “Fire and Iron Motorcycle Club” went on a cross-country trip and made a special stop in Baraboo to drop off the shadow box.

“You’re an angel, my friend,” Breunig said during an emotional hug.

“I got a surprise for you,” said Hilfirty. “You got a surprise?” responded Breunig. “I bet I know what it is!”

“I don’t know the guy but I can tell his service was exemplary,” said Hilfirty. “He was willing to write a blank check and cover that check with his life to give us the freedoms to do the things that we do,”

“It kind of feels like I’m hugging him, even though he’s been gone since 2005,” Breunig said holding the shadow box. “Thank you. All of you, thank you so much. That’s not even the right words. Like how do you say thank you? I know. You are all my family now, how about that?”

“It’s a warm and fuzzy feel-good moment that I am going to remember for the rest of my life,” added Hilfirty. “I couldn’t ask for a better ending,”

SOURCE: WMTV

Driver that killed 7 bikers was high

Columbia, New Hampshire, USA (August 1, 2019) — The driver charged in connection with a New Hampshire crash that killed seven motorcyclists was high on drugs and was reaching for a drink when the accident occurred, according to a report obtained by the Boston Globe.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration report says 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy tested positive after the crash for "an unspecified drug," either a narcotic or an amphetimine. The report said the drug made him incapable of driving safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a prelminary report last week summarizing the details behind the June 21 crash in which a pickup truck driven by Zhukovskyy crashed into the bikers in Randolph. The report affirmed early reports that Zhukovskyy crossed the center of the road and collided with the bikers.

Related | Ride for the Fallen 7 this weekend 

Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, has pleaded not guilty to negligent homicide. Officials say Zhukovskyy's license should have been suspended because of a drunken driving arrest.

Also last week, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey confirmed an investigation into Westfield Transportation, which operated the truck.

Investigators said Zhukovskyy's Dodge pickup truck was towing a flatbed trailer as it traveled west on Route 2 in Randolph when it crossed into the eastbound lane and collided with the group of 10 motorcyclists, members of the Massachusetts chapter of the JarHeads Motorcycle Club.

Zhukovskyy, an immigrant from the Ukraine, has a lengthy record of incidents on the road. He was arrested on OUI charges in 2013 in Westfield, Massachusetts, and again last month in Connecticut, when he was allegedly found at a Walmart revving his truck engine and jumping around outside his vehicle.

Westfield Transport also has a history of violations, including seven for unsafe driving, according to a review of federal vehicle safety data.

Zhukovskyy still had his commercial driver's license at the time of the wreck, but Massachusetts determined afterward that it should have been revoked based on the May 11 OUI arrest in Connecticut.

In the wake of the New Hampshire accident, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and other top state officials promised to conduct a full review of the Registry of Motor Vehicles to determine why out-of-state notifications about driving offenses weren't being reviewed.

The fallout from the crash led to the resignation of Erin Deveney, the former head of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Former MassDOT Chief Operating Officer Jamey Tesler is currently serving as acting registrar.

SOURCE: NBC Boston
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Ride for the Fallen 7 this weekend

Columbia, New Hampshire, USA (July 4, 2019) — Thousands of bikers are expected to ride this weekend in honor of the seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, whose lives were taken from them in a tragic crash last month, in an event that organizers say has grown from a “small ride” to a “movement.”

“We all come together, that’s something I expected, but I could have never imagined this magnitude,” organizer Brian DeSimone told the Herald. “The outcry of support has been unbelievable.”

Members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, salute the casket outside St. Peter’s Church during the funeral for Michael Ferazzi on June 28, 2019 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Photo: Matt Stone

A Facebook post about the event, dubbed the Ride for the Fallen 7, went viral as motorcyclists across New England wanted to pay their respects to the seven bikers who died in a collision with a West Springfield trucker on June 21. Another three were hospitalized. DeSimone estimates anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people will ride Saturday, traveling from as far as California.

Related | Driver charged in deadly motorcycle crash

“We might not know them, but we are touched by them,” Jim Desrosiers said. “All of us bikers are a family, so when one of us falls, we all fall.”

Desrosiers, of Oakham, is planning to ride out of his original hometown of Worcester on Saturday with 14 other bikers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York to meet at the event’s starting location in Laconia, N.H. He visited the site of the crash four days after it happened.

“I had chills,” Desrosiers said. “The first cross I saw, it brought me to my knees.”

Rides this size can take up to a year to plan, DeSimone said, but they pulled it together in just 10 days. DeSimone, of Derry, N.H., didn’t know the members of the Jarheads clan but felt compelled to get involved after his own near-death experience three years ago.

“I almost died in a motorcycle accident and the first thought in my mind was the victims’ family and friends, what they’re going through,” DeSimone said. “The support — the outcry and support I got — I wanted to give back.”

Jackie D’Alio, a member of the Massachusetts Patriot Guard riders, felt “tremendously sad,” but also “angry,” after hearing about the investigation into the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, which found that trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, accused of crashing into the pack of motorcyclists, should have been under an automatic suspension after a May 11 OUI arrest in Connecticut. His was one of tens of thousands of alerts on out-of-state driving infractions that sat unprocessed in the RMV for more than a year.

“These vets fought for our freedom to even be able to ride. The least we can do is ride in their honor. In the biker family, they will never be alone,” D’Alio said.

The crash in Randolph, N.H., killed Jo-Ann and Edward Corr, both 58, of Lakeville; Michael Ferazzi, 62, of Contoocook, N.H.; Albert Mazza, 59, of Lee, N.H.; Desma Oakes, 42, of Concord, N.H.; Aaron Perry, 45, of Farmington, N.H.; and Daniel Pereira, 58, of Riverside, R.I.

SOURCE: Boston Herald

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Truck driver charged in deadly motorcycle crash

Columbia, New Hampshire, USA (June 24, 2019) — The driver of a truck in a collision that killed seven motorcyclists was charged Monday with seven counts of negligent homicide, authorities said.

Volodoymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, was arrested Monday morning at his home in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on a fugitive from justice charge related to Friday’s crash, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said.

He was expected to make a court appearance on the charge Monday afternoon in Springfield.

A man who answered the phone at the home of Zhukovskyy’s family and would identify himself only as his brother-in-law said Monday that the family is in shock and feeling the same pain as everyone else but couldn’t say whether the driver was right or wrong.

Related | Bikers bid goodbye to 7 killed in crash

Zhukovskyy’s pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer collided with a group of 10 motorcycles Friday on a two-lane highway in the northern New Hampshire community of Randolph, investigators said.

The victims were members or supporters of the Marine JarHeads, a New England motorcycle club that includes Marines and their spouses, and ranged in age from 42 to 62.

The circumstances of the wreck have been mysterious.

The uncle of one of the victims said Sunday that he was trying to comprehend how so many bikers died in one accident.

“The truck was coming in the opposite direction. It’s hard to figure how he could hit 10 motorcycles without getting out of the way,” Joseph Mazza said. “Right now, the details are very vague. I’m very confused ... I need more information.”

Authorities identified the dead as Michael Ferazzi, 62, of Contoocook, New Hampshire; Albert Mazza Jr., 59, of Lee, New Hampshire; Desma Oakes, 42, of Concord, New Hampshire; Aaron Perry, 45, of Farmington, New Hampshire; Daniel Pereira, 58, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and Jo-Ann and Edward Corr, both 58, of Lakeville, Massachusetts.

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