The Patriot Guard pays tribute to Spc. Lucas Allen Frantz during his funeral in October 2005 at Tonganoxie's VFW Park. The guard created a barricade between protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka and the funeral. The Kansas Patriot Guard has went on at least 50 missions in Kansas since it was formed about two years ago.

Members of the Patriot Guard, a group of motorcyclists, veterans and others who help shield military funerals from the protest pickets of the Westboro Baptist Church, gather in front of the group led by Fred Phelps during the funeral for Cpl. Lucas Allen Frantz in Tonganoxie in this Oct. 27, 2005, file photo.

Farmers, schoolchildren, police officers and – seemingly – whole towns have come out to line the streets as Terry Houck and others in the Patriot Guard ride past.

“To see what your country does, it is hard to ride that motorcycle because, old guys like myself, you might happen to have tears in your eyes,” Houck said.

In the past two years, the Patriot Guard has grown from an idea hatched by American Legion Riders in the small south-central Kansas town of Mulvane to a fixture at the funerals of fallen soldiers throughout the country. Nationally, there are more than 140,000 members.

In Kansas alone, the Patriot Guard has gone on more than 50 missions. They have traveled to Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Across the state, hundreds of American flags are stationed in the homes of captains, ready to be loaded into trailers and taken wherever bikers stand guard at funerals.

The story begins with Houck and his wife, Carol. After watching a newscast about the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church protesting the funeral of a soldier, Carol Houck urged her husband, a Vietnam vet and American Legion rider, to do something.

Houck and other members of the local American Legion Riders post were used to providing motorcycle escorts to funerals of veterans, soldier send-off ceremonies and homecoming celebrations. So, it made sense to ride to Chelsea, Okla., where a soldier was to be buried and the church members were sure to follow.

The family said they could come. By the time the journey was over, the group of motorcyclists had grown to 200 with other veterans groups and motorcycle clubs joining along the way. They formed a line of flags and bikes, standing as a shield between the mourning family and the pickets.

Soon afterward, the group’s next mission took them to Tonganoxie for the funeral of Army Spec. Lucas Frantz.

It was there in a parking lot, before the flags and motorcycles took their positions, that Houck announced their mission was to be known as the Patriot Guard.