Honoring those who sacrificed the most

A healthy sized crowd gathered on Monday to watch Belgium’s Memorial Day parade and program, which returned to its regular form after a tiny ceremony was held last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead of the usual cold May breeze coming off of Lake Michigan, partly sunny skies and warm temperatures made for comfortable conditions to honor fallen American heroes.

The American Legion led off the parade, followed by the Scout Troop 806 of Belgium, Belgium Lions Club, Cedar Grove-Belgium  High School Band and the Belgium Fire Department.

Scouts Kellen Olsen, Evan Rammel and Karl Engevold raised the American, POW and Wisconsin flags, and Max Koopman led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Keynote speaker John Riordan of the Town of Belgium didn’t talk about what he is most known for — saving 106 Vietnamese people during the fall of Saigon by claiming they were all his relatives while he worked as an assistant bank branch manager.

That tale, the subject of a piece on “60 Minutes” in 2015, Riordan said, is told in his book, “They Are All My Family.”

Riordan instead talked about serving 18 months as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War from January 1968 to July 1969. He worked as a medic and carried a 45 pistol.

Riordan once used his gun to scare off two teenagers accosting a woman, then consoled her. Another time, his boss asked if Riordan ever fired his gun. He said no, and his boss told Riordan to shoot into a garbage pile.

“I did, but it jammed,” Riordan said. “Those are the only two occasions during my military tour in Vietnam where I pulled out my gun. I never fired it.”

Riordan did fire a mortar once, while his base was under attack. Flares illuminated the faces of a few hundred Vietnamese women and men pointing their rifles at the soldiers, he said.

Riordan also saw many bodies on the ground that by the next morning were removed by the Vietcong. 

“Life is so fragile and it can be taken away so easily,” Riordan said.

He received a similar fearful reminder when a building next to where he stayed in Saigon was attacked. Riordan, from his room on the top floor of his building, tried to crawl under his bed when he heard rockets coming from across the river, but his boots, shoes and slippers were in the way.

Riordan instinctively grabbed his bed and pulled it on top of him. Despite shutting his eyes, he could see a bright white light from a rocket exploding but heard no sound.

“I thought I must be dead,” he said.

“Many seconds later, or so it seems,  came the sounds of debris raining down upon me along with the cries and the screams from the building hit.

“It’s been said that war is hell. I’ve been sure of the truth of that ever since.”

Visits to the central morgue and the disturbing images it offered also sticks with Riordan.

In closing, Riordan suggested the crowd “all do our civic duty,” by staying informed of local, state, national and international matters,  “exercise our right to vote in our elections, know our elected representatives and remember and honor those who accepted the call of duty and pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for our country.”

During his speech, an older man collapsed in the grass at Community Park, and members of the Fire Department, who all stayed for the ceremony, sprung into action in perhaps one of the fastest response times in department history.

Fire Chief Dan Birenbaum said the man passed out and fell down for an unknown reason. He was treated at the scene and released.

“That’s why we have the rescue sqaud there,” Birenbaum said.