The rain held off.

Organizers for Saturday's Rally for the Troops at Bladen County Park had planned to move the rally to Green's Warehouse in Clarkton if promised thunderstorms drowned out the event.

Minutes before Ken Pervine of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8062 welcomed the crowd, gray skies drizzled a few spurts of rain, but stopped until minutes after the ceremony ended.

State and local dignitaries joined members of various veterans groups Saturday in a show of support for those fighting in the War on Terror. Around 100 spectators attended, many of whom were veterans or have veterans in their families.

After County Commissioner Greg Taylor led the crowd in the National Anthem, Bobby, Reynold and Robert Hester saluted the crowd with a flyover.

The two-plus hour program featured speakers ranging from State Sen. Tony Rand to members of the Bladen County Board of Commissioners and representatives of area town boards as well as military service organizations.

Representatives from the American Legion, VFW, Disabled American Veterans, and other military and service groups spoke during the program.

Tar Heel Mayor Phil Allen told the crowd that while his town hadn't passed a resolution supporting the troops, they had decided to "go one better."

"We've run all the anti-war protestors out of Tar Heel," he said, to cheers from the crowd. "We're working on North Carolina next."

Allen said Bladen County should feel a special kinship with those in the service, not just because of the many sons and daughters who have served or are deployed, "but because almost every day we can see them."

"These young men and women come down through our county on (N.C.) 87, heading to Wilmington or other places," he said. "They get on ships, and leave their homes and country far behind. They don't know when they'll come home, if ever."

The veterans of the war in Iraq, Allen said, will be a whole new set of leaders for the country.

"When they get home," he said, "we'll have to run to catch up to them."

Rand reminded the crowd that North Carolina regularly provides the backbone of the country's military.

"We need to remember not just those troops in Iraq, but in Afghanistan and the Balkans as well," he said. "Many of them came from here-either they are Carolinians, or were stationed here when they were deployed. They need all our love and a support."

Three representatives of Rolling Thunder, a POW/MIA service organization, joined veteran Bob Holmes in presenting the POW/MIA table.

The memorial, versions of which predate the American Revolution, is used to demonstrate military personnel missing in action or still held prisoner by enemy forces.

The table features an empty glass, a single rose, a slice of lemon, salt and other symbols of the feeling and emotions of MIA families, according to Clyde Vaughn, a member of N.C. Rolling Thunder and a former POW.

"We must never allow our government to leave our men and women behind again," he said. "We must insist on knowing the fates of all U.S. service men and women.

Members of Troop E, 196th Cavalry Regt., N.C. National Guard, based in Elizabethtown, were also on hand with vehicles from the local Guard unit.

Wearing the distinctive black hat of the U.S. Army's modern cavalry, First Sgt. Jay White thanked the crowd for their support of the troops.

Don Hancock, a representative of the state VFW organization and a helicopter pilot during Vietnam, said that while veterans of previous wars had teased Guardsmen about "hiding out" in previous wars, that was no longer the case.

"Nowadays," Hancock said, "the National Guard is often our first force on the ground. The only difference between a Guard and a reservist and a regular Army is a set or orders. Anyone-your wife, husband, brother, sister or neighbor-could be called on to go anywhere in the world to defend freedom, and they are all volunteers. Always remember that."

Roy Allen, who commands the ROTC program at East Bladen High School, told the crowd he was proud of America's servicemen and women.

Several of his former students are currently in the armed forces, Allen said.

"I keep feeling the same emotions my mom felt when she saw my dad off in Raleigh, when he left for World War II," Allen said, "and the feelings my wife had when I left for Vietnam. We must never forget those who have given their all for us. "

Ken Pervine, VFW Post 8062 commander Robert Hester, Rev. Jerry Beck and Rev. Donald Coley read the names of 94 servicemen and women with Bladen County ties. About half of them are currently deployed to the Iraq area.

One of those soldiers mentioned was Corey Cox, the grandson of Dewey Dove of Bladenboro. Dove carried a small American flag and a slip of paper with Cox's name on it.

Dove signed a large placard in support of the troops.

"We've not heard from him in five weeks," Dove said. "We know his division is in Baghdad, but all we know for sure is that we have to keep on praying and hoping they'll come home soon."

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