Memorial Day

On May 22, 1968, Marine First Lieutenant David Westphall was killed in an ambush near Con Thien in Vietnam. He was twenty-eight years old. Back home on their ranch near Angel Fire, New Mexico, his parents, Dr. Victor "Doc" Westphall and his wife Jeanne, made a decision that would reshape how America remembers the Vietnam War: they would build a memorial to their son and his fallen comrades, using David's military life insurance to pay for it.

For four decades, Memorial Day weekend meant one thing in Red River: thunder. The Red River Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally — one of the oldest in the nation — drew tens of thousands of bikers to Main Street and kicked off the town's summer season with a roar.