New Mexico Legion Rider Ken Nadeau talks his involvement with the Riders, why he said yes to leading the Legacy Run and its important mission of raising funds for the Veterans & Children Foundation.
New Mexico Legionnaire Ken Nadeau’s first experience with The American Legion Legacy Run was when it left Indianapolis and ended up in Cincinnati in 2016.
He’s not missed one since – except for in 2020, when the physical ride was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic – and has served in various capacities. On his eight rides, he’s served as a flight captain, a road guard and then the chief road guard, overseeing the safety and logistics of the ride.
But the Department of New Mexico’s Area 3 vice commander and state Legion Riders director will take on a different role this August: that of the Legacy Run’s chief road captain. He’ll lead the five-day ride that will depart from Virginia on Aug. 17 and arrive in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 21 – all while raising funds for The American Legion Veterans & Children Foundation. The foundation funds the Legion’s Temporary Financial Assistance program, as well as covers the cost of training the Legion’s veteran service officers, who provide more than 750,000 benefits claims for disabled veterans and their families, free of charge. In fiscal 2024, those service officers provided more than $21 billion in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits.
Nadeau, the outgoing adjutant and past commander of American Legion Post 90 in Los Alamos, talked with American Legion Social Media Manager Steven B. Brooks about his involvement with the Riders, taking on the responsibility of chief road captain and what Legacy Run participants can expect from this year’s ride.
Steven B. Brooks: How and why did you get involved with the American Legion Riders?
Ken Nadeau: They were more active and present within the community. I already had a motorcycle, and I wasn’t really riding with a group, per se. I happened to be in the post at a certain point in time, shooting some pool … and I got approached by one of the other members. They needed some Riders, and we kind of fell in lockstep with one another. I wasn’t really looking, but I found that really enjoyed the group of people that we had, the family.
Question: What kept you involved?
Nadeau: It seemed to be a tighter group. We all had more things in common, and we wanted to do things. We got more active in doing things in our community. We found needs associated with kids. For us, we took on an identity of making sure we were helping veterans’ kids and kids in general.
We do plenty of other things. We host Wreaths Across America on an annual basis. We’re usually 100 percent for covering veterans’ graves locally. Our primary focus, at least mine, was going involved and engaged … with the community and outside the post.
Question: What is it about the Legacy Run that will bring you back for the ninth time this August?
Nadeau: Every year you build relationships with people. I love the fact that no ride is ever the same. It’s always something different, and you get to meet new and different people every year. But at the same time, all those people that come back together you build relationships with. In the service, you tend to build strong bonds with those people you go through certain things in life with – especially in a combat environment. On the Legacy Run, every year something unique happens, whether it’s weather, whether it’s some kind of hardship … you share those moments with each other, and it builds a unique bond with those people. Because you build those bonds with those people, you come back together every year, and it gets stronger. You rekindle those relationships, and it’s like you never left.
I never really had a strong familial environment. The friends that I end up having in my life and doing things with become much more important to me because of who they are and the things that we share together. It’s taken the place of, in some cases, a family.
Question: Why did you say yes when asked to take over as chief road captain of this year’s Legacy Run, charged with what can be a more than 200-motorcycle ride across more than 1,000 miles over five days?
Nadeau: That ride is important, not just to me on a personal level, but for the mission it carries … from the Veterans & Children Foundation perspective. The mission it accomplishes is dire. It’s important. It is necessary. Everybody can go and ride, but when you take the time to consider the benefit of that ride, it’s something that needs to happen in order to bring the awareness in order to provide the support for our fellow veterans, their children and the people who make a difference in ensuring those people get the benefits they need.
The service officers are a direct link to helping veterans and their families receive the benefits due them. Without educated people to run the gamut and obstacle course that it requires to get those people what they need and deserve because of their personal sacrifices … you’d have a lot of people that wouldn’t have their benefits. Being able to get the training and resources available for veteran service officers is a huge, big deal all across the country. To get veteran service officers trained across the country, especially in rural areas, is a huge resource.
Question: I know that planning for this year’s Legacy Run is in the very early stages, but can you at least tease participants about what they can expect on this year’s ride?
Nadeau: What they can look forward to, most importantly, is A., an opportunity to help veterans and their families, and B., look forward to plenty of stops of historical focus. They will see countryside between Virginia and Tampa, Fla., that they may not have seen. They will get breaks and opportunities to see the Atlantic Ocean, as well as being able to finish in a place on the Gulf Coast.
We will have potential opportunities to see things that might be particular to Marines, which isn’t a normal thing. You don’t get around those facilities and that mindset very often. Hopefully, we will get good opportunities to touch base in a few areas that might ring true for some of the other branches of service. There’ll be historical sites that we will visit where we will honor past, present and future with wreath layings. And it will provide a unique opportunity for everybody to have a vacation that gets planned for them, and they get to come along for the ride and enjoy the views.
- Riders