by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Vietnam Veteran and former LEO, Kit Wennersten
Kit Wennersten has not been in the military for two decades, but he’s a man on a mission, tricycling across the country on a fund-raising effort to support wounded and disabled veterans.
The former Marysville, WA, police officer and Vietnam combat veteran who also is a licensed federal firearms dealer departed June 10 from Astoria, OR, with eight other riders on a cross-country “Ride Across America” trek. Their journey will follow the Adventure Cycling Association’s TransAmerica route for 4,250 miles, ending in Yorktown, VA.
A dyed-in-the-wool gun enthusiast who enjoys hunting, fishing, backpacking, camping, reloading and collecting and selling firearms, Wennersten’s devotion to disabled veterans is front and center for the next couple of months. He will be doing this trip with an ICE Adventure Tadpole tricycle.
Wennersten’s effort is to raise money for the Semper Fi Fund and Freedom Alliance. Team Semper Fi, he said via e-mail, includes more than 375 service members. The fund was inspired, he said, “by those wounded Marines and sailors who refused to let their challenges prevent them from competing in athletic events, and whose drive and determination is an inspiration to us all.” Freedom Alliance programs include outdoor sports retreats, hunts and “Heroes Family vacations.” A scholarship fund provides support for the children of service members killed in the line of duty. Wennersten told TGM the fund has awarded more than $6 million in college scholarships to “hundreds of sons and daughters of American heroes.” Wennersten, a native of Holland, MI, joined the Navy in 1965 and served tours in Vietnam before leaving the Navy in 1969. He returned to active duty in 1972 in the Marine Corps and rose to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant within nine years, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1981.
He then did an inner-service transfer back to the Navy to complete Naval Officer Candidate School and received his commission in 1982. He has been stationed in Rhode Island, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle, where he was the regional Drug and Alcohol program coordinator. He received numerous decorations, including the Navy Commendation medal, Navy Achievement medal, Combat Action ribbon, Vietnam Service medal with four bronze stars, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Unit Commendation, and others.
For more than two years, he also worked as an actor on Tom Selleck’s old Magnum PI series on CBS.
After his military service, Wennersten spent 17 years with the Marysville Police Department, retiring in 2008.
He served as a DARE officer, senior firearms instructor, armorer, traffic accident investigator and bike officer.
He will be updating the progress of this national bike tour on a blog page he has on the Internet.
