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Kansas Sons of 17�Թ��� member and Legacy Run Chief Road Guard Chad Krueger looks back on his relationship with fallen comrade Michael Haas.

Chris Kreuger didn’t meet fellow Kansas American Legion Rider Michael Haas until 2021. But the pair developed a friendship quickly, one that Kreuger said was second only to his wife.

The pair began working together on the Kansas State Legacy Run in 2022, and that’s when their relationship grew stronger – to the point where they would room together on the national Legacy Run.

“He and I just clicked,” Krueger said. “We talked every day. And during the planning for the Kansas Run, we’d talk five to six times a day about this, that and the other. And if there was a day where we didn’t talk, one or the other would call the other and say, ‘Well, I haven’t talked to you today, so we might as well call and talk.’”

Haas, a member of Arden H. McKee Post 128 in Sterling and a member of the Legacy Run’s road guard, died on Tuesday as a result of injuries he sustained while in a motorcycle accident during the ride’s morning leg to Keokuk, Iowa.

Krueger and Haas met on the Kansas Legacy Run in 2021. A year later, a group of Kansas Riders were on the way to the start of that year’s Legacy Run in 2022 when Dave Schoonover – a member of the National American Legion Advisory Committee and a participant in every previous Legacy Run – was involved in an accident and succumbed to his injuries later that day.

Both Krueger and Haas were with that group of Riders, and that’s when Krueger learned Schoonover and Haas had known each other since the 1990s. “And, of course, Dave’s death drew us all closer together,” Krueger said. “At that time, it was like, ‘Well, this is now a mission. We’ve got to finish the mission. We’ve got to do it for Dave.’”

Haas and Krueger stayed in touch after that, and Krueger moved into the chairmanship position of the Kansas State Legacy Run Committee. Knowing that Haas had previously been a truck driver and knew the state’s roads – and at the time was working in law enforcement – he began involving him in route planning. And that’s where the friendship blossomed.

“He just got more and more involved,” Krueger said. “This last June for our 11^th (state ride), he had law enforcement at every community we visited. He had it in every county we went into it. Our road guards didn’t have to do much at all.”

No one would have blamed Krueger had he been unable to finish the Run. But for the Sons of 17�Թ��� Detachment of Kansas adjutant, that was never an option.

“I’ve read books and seen all the movies on a lot of the true accounts from solders, airmen, sailors, Marines that were in horrible situations and kept going,” Krueger said. “I didn’t serve. I’m a (member of SAL Squadron 180 in Great Bend). I’ve just always admired that level of fortitude and ability to focus and compartmentalize and move forward.

“Now, I’ve had my moments. I’m not made of steel, obviously. None of us are. But we’ve got to get the mission done. We’ve got 240 people that are depending on us. We can’t just walk away from it. To be accepted and trusted and relied on by all these folks that have been through so much worse than I have is … I can’t betray that. I can’t let them down.”

Being a part of the Rider community also helped. “So much support. So many people, both in-person and online – and it’s not just our Legacy Run family that’s here that was on this run,” Krueger said. “We have a Facebook Group, and I’ve got dozens of friends on Facebook that used to come on the Run that have all reached out. I’ve had calls. I’ve had texts. My phone’s been getting blown up with this.

“That kind of support, being able to lean on folks, it goes to . I mean, I’m not at that state. I’m fine. But it’s the kind of support that everybody needs, especially through tough times like that. These people are living it. They really are.”

Krueger also praised Run participant and fellow Kansas Legion Rider Alan Zeitvogel for staying with Haas following the accident and then ensuring his wife, Terri, got a chance to say goodbye.

“Alan Zeitvogel was an absolute rockstar,” Krueger said. “He stayed with him at the side of the road, called Terri. Before they pronounced him, he put his phone on speaker so Terri could say ‘bye’ to him. He was amazing.”

On her Facebook page, Michael’s wife Terri wrote “God allowed him one last ride. A ride to honor others and spend time with his Legion brothers and sisters. I want all you Legion Riders who are trying to work through all this to know he rode out his Legacy proudly with you all.”

Krueger remembers his friend’s big laugh and a mischievous side. “He loved unscrewing the cap on the pepper (shaker) before I used it at a restaurant,” he said. “He got me really good once. I put a whole pile of pepper on my baked potato. He loved to prank people. But he had a heart of gold.”

Moments like that are what Krueger will miss.

“The thing that really got me the other night is we were rooming together,” he said. “And I walk into that hotel room, and I don’t hear his big old voice: ‘What bed do you want tonight?' There’s been a lot of, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen anymore.’

“He was just the best person. He didn’t have an enemy in the world. He was the brother I never had.”