The History of the Barons as told by Tom Richter

The story as told over many beers a long, long time ago: 

Some or all of it may be true. Some of it happened before I was born, some before I was old enough to care and most of it while I was in a drunken haze.

The Barons were born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It was originally an AMA sanctioned club, the start date of the club is lost in time, but in the mid 50's there was a difference of opinion with the AMA and the club turned outlaw. In those days this meant that the club was no longer AMA sanctioned, not that they were a Hells Angles type club. 

The original one-piece patch was retained but the sleeves of the riding jackets were cut off to signify that the club was an outlaw club. It could have been a money saving practice or just plane old stubbornness by the club members at the time. This resulted in the eventual loss of the older more affluent members with the club taking on a younger, more blue collar type of rider with a mixture of American and European bikes. 

The only rule about the kind of bikes in the club was that the rider had to be able to keep up with the group, and that wasn't that hard with the breakdowns that everyone experienced every so often. The club had few rules, no formal officers and a very laid back method of doing things. Pretty much just a group of guys having a good time together on their bikes. 

Planning was kept to a minimum and most rides were the result of someone saying lets go here or there on the spur of the moment. There were no long running disagreements or other troubles although there were short term problems that sometimes resulted in violence. But on the most part everything was pretty calm and laid back.

I joined the club in the early 60's after hanging around with them for a few years. John Schmidt patched me. This was not an earth shaking event, just handed a patch and nothing more said about it. That was the way things were done. By 1965 there were only a few of us left, between the draft, jail, college and death the ranks of the Barons had been seriously depleted. I was going off to the Air Force, Butch Schmitd was in college, and the rest of the club was in pretty much the same condition. We had sold our bikes and we put our colors away with intents of riding together another day.

In 1967 I was stationed at Mather AFB, California, married and riding a jap bike, but that was sold to buy an engine for my wife's car. She didn't like bikes, didn't like my friends and eventually didn't like me. One divorce and a transfer later I was stationed at Travis AFB, Ca. and I used my newfound freedom and reenlistment bonus to buy another bike. I rode in California with some local people for a while.

In 1972,  I was transferred to Kadena AB, Okinawa. Riding there was great and the group I rode with wanted to start up a club. I contacted Butch Schmidt and we decided that we could use the Barons patch in Okinawa. Since none of the other riders had ever been to St. Cloud it seemed foolish to patch them to a city that they had never been to. Most of the other overseas gangs were patched to a country and tried to act like they ruled that area. We decided to patch new members to the city they were in when they joined the club. This resulted in the Barons/Koza patch. At this time all members were required to have a bike and club membership needed a unanimous vote. 

There was a period of unrest for awhile until things got sorted out in Okinawa. There were those who thought we shouldn't have a local or female wearing colors and we had to defend that right. Those that thought they could tell us where and when we could ride and those that talked down to us because we were riding jap bikes had to be convinced of the errors of their ways. But we were riding and in most cases they were not. 

A group called the Okinawan Outlaw Association was formed to bring peace to the trouble on the island, this worked to an extent and also convinced all of the club members involved at the time to keep the small diamond patch to remind us to never get involved with something that stupid again. The club went back to the old laid back ways of the founders.

Next stop was Texas with another new member then back to Okinawa. But the name of the city had changed to Okinawa City so this resulted in a corresponding change to the colors. Born was the Barons/Okinawa City patch. This was a long tour with many of the old gang still around and new members joining. There was a lot of good riding and partying with good friends. There were still spots of trouble jumping up in our path occasionally, but for the most part we had gotten older and smarter and the problems were mostly handled with brain rather than brawn. 

A few transfers later I was in the Philippines and thus the Barons/Angles City Patch. Way too much partying and a trip out of the country twenty minuets ahead of the sheriff ended that ride.

Retirement and a civilian job brought me to Korea and the start of the club here with Barons/Kunsan, Barons/Songtan, Barons/Kwang Ju and Barons/ Jeju. Club rules were changed to incorporate formal club officers and wives were patched since they had as much to do with our riding as we did. We invited Koreans to join the club and this has worked out to be a very good thing for the club.

And that is how it stands to date. I think.
These are the names of club members off the top of my head, there are more but I can't think of them at the moment.