- History -

     The Wingmen Motorcycle Club originated at the base of Boscomantico near Verona, Italy, the home of the Combat Support Company, 1st Battalion, of the 509th Airborne Combat Team. In the spring of 1976 a member of the Ft. Lewis Freedom Riders started the chapter but with an original center patch consisting of an American Eagle instead of the home chapters center patch.
    
     In the summer of 1978 the post closed, and we joined the rest of the battalion in Vicenza, Italy, where the club continued to grow. It was in Vicenza that the Freedom Riders picked up a new member who informed the club that the founding member in Verona had been thrown out of the Ft. Lewis Freedom Riders and had no authorization to start a new chapter. At a club meeting on the 4th of July, 1979, the members voted to change their name to the Wingmen Motorcycle Club, a term used to describe the way two pilots fly and cover one another. The original center Eagle patch was kept and the club stayed All American, unlike a lot of the American clubs in Europe.
    
     When one of the members returned to Ft. Bragg, NC, in August 1979, he received a copy of the Wingmen charter and started to put a chapter together for the other returning paratroopers.
    
     In the states the club did not stay all GI with many civilian riders. By the spring of 1985, enough men had passed through the chapters ranks and been assigned to Fort Benning, GA, that the Columbus chapter was formed. From that point, former members at other bases began to build chapters until today the Wingmen can be found all over the United States partying with one another and other clubs. The spirit of Harley-Davidson and brotherhood keeps them united and their club motto says it all: