At the Memorial Day Rolling Thunder event in 2002, Staff Sergeant Tim Chambers thanked the thousands of veterans riding motorcycles by marching into the center of the road and “popping up a salute.”
Since then, the man—known as “The Saluting Marine”
—has become a major draw at the yearly march in Washington, DC, where he honors fallen soldiers with a torturous, hours-long salute.
Chambers’ commitment to the cause moves many people, and they express their gratitude by giving him hugs, tears, or salutes.
Staff Sergeant Tim Chambers snapped his right hand into a hard salute that precisely matched his brow, slammed his heels together, and lined his fist with the seam of his trousers.
During the Memorial Day Rolling Thunder parade outside the Pentagon, Obama saluted hundreds of veterans as they passed on motorbikes for up to five hours.
Chambers became known as The Saluting Marine in 2002 when he “popped” into the middle of the road, greeting veterans at the parade. “I just jumped out there as the parade was happening and popped up a salute. Then I started thinking, ‘Can I make it to the end? If I fall out will I look like a complete idiot?’” Chambers said of his first time holding a demanding hours-long salute at the event.
The veteran, who joined the Marines in 1994, says, “I just got caught up in the moment.”
