Motorcycle run aims to help LI's veterans

Bill McNaughton of Centereach lost his son, James, in the Iraq War, and six years later he sees too many veterans returning from war who don't know where to turn to get their lives in order.

That's why McNaughton was among about 600 people who attended a Farmingville motorcycle run Sunday to raise money for 9-1-1 Veterans, a Long Island group.

"A lot of the time, veterans won't go to an organization -- they'll go to another veteran," he said. "Because another veteran knows what he's going through."

The Lindenhurst-based group gives veterans a chance to go to a veteran, and is headed by Chris Delaney, a Coast Guard reservist who served in Iraq.

The group uses money it raises to help veterans pay for essentials such as rent, food and utilities, Delaney, of Lindenhurst, said. The motorcycle rally should help the organization raise more than $200,000 this year, he said.

Sunday's event, the third annual PFC Joseph Dwyer Hero Rally & Motorcycle Run, was dedicated to a former Mount Sinai Army medic who died in his Pinehurst, N.C., apartment in 2008. About 250 motorcyclists drove an approximately 70-mile course around Suffolk County, beginning and ending at Brookhaven Amphitheater in Farmingville.

Dwyer was immortalized in a iconic 2003 photograph that captured him rescuing an Iraqi child. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and collapsed and died after inhaling computer cleaner spray.

Delaney said yesterday's event was as much to raise awareness about PTSD as it was to raise money for veterans.

"We want to take care of the men and women who help keep America safe," he said.

Dwyer's wife, Matina Dwyer of North Carolina, said she was touched by the event. "It's about helping other veterans who need the help," she said.