The IN COUNTRY VETS MC was conceived and founded in late 1994 by a small group of Vietnam veterans in Illinois who had served in country, and wanted to ride together in a motorcycling brotherhood, with a desire to support and assist each other, other veterans, veterans’ widows and dependents, and other members of the community. The club is wholly benevolent in purpose and organization.
Following appropriate protocols, the founders met with the senior clubs in their area and received the approval to wear they patch they had designed- an IN COUNTRY VETS top rocker, a stylized version of the Vietnam Service Medal as a center patch, an MC patch, and their unit ID as a bottom rocker.
A Constitution and By-laws were drawn up, and the club was incorporated as a not-for-profit war veterans MC in Illinois. In line with their motto of ‘Vets Helping Vets’, they applied for, and were granted and IRS 501c(19) federal tax exempt status.
In the more than ten years since the club was founded, it has grown to include members, chapters and charters all over the U.S. and in 2002, the first international chapter was formed, comprised of Vietnam veterans living in Germany.
In 2007 the top rocker was changed to simply read IN COUNTRY.