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 Sonora, Ca -- “I spoke to a few people in our group afterward who said it overwhelmed them to tears,” said Brian Dommes, vice-president of the American Legion Riders Chapter 108 of Amador. There were banners from sponsors welcoming home the more than 300 Vietnam Veterans in vehicles, walking, and riding motorcycles in front of thousands of spectators to the first and only parade in the nation for Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.
The high point in the parade was when a Grand Cherokee dressed out in a Navy theme and loaded with former Navy personnel jumped out and unfurled an American Flag that flew on the USS Constitution in front of the Union Democrat building and the 59th Army Band of Sacramento played the National Anthem as all the veterans hand-saluted. Following the National Anthem was a flyover down the parade route of two World War II Army planes by the Commemorative Air Force from Modesto. The planes are part of a museum in Modesto and they were flown by Terry Dunn, a Vietnam Veteran, and Bob Holloway. George Eldridge, a retired Chief Petty Officer who served in Vietnam in 1965-1966, was the parade’s coordinator and owner of the “Navy” vehicle said, “The main purpose of this parade was to finally welcome home our Vietnam veterans. I spoke with one veteran and asked him if he had ever.
realized how many Americans in Tuolumne County honored his service. ‘I do now,’ he said. That is what I was hoping the parade would achieve. I also wanted the citizens to finally see their ‘invisible soldiers’.” Eldridge added, “ Chapter 391 was the host of the parade. I’ve heard some say we shouldn’t be putting on our own parade. We didn’t, we coordinated the parade. It was the many sponsors from the community who put on this parade. Without them, there wouldn’t have been a parade. The many banners in the parade were evident that the community supports its veterans.”
More evidence of the success of the parade included the fact that the Associates of Vietnam Veterans Chapter 391 sold almost 380 souvenir t-shirts. The chapter has them for sale on their web site along with posters for “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” (www.VietnamVeterans391.org). Every unit that passed the audience received thunderous cheers from the spectators and the big, burly motorcyclists even had their eyes welling with tears which they reluctantly related to Eldridge. The parade was led by the Color Guard from the Lemoore Naval Air Station in Lemoore, California. Those receiving the loudest cheers were Jon Cavaiani of Sonora and Richard Pittman of Stockton, both Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients. “There are only 91 living Medal of Honor recipients in the U.S. at the present time and that’s from all wars, so having two from Vietnam is really remarkable,” added Eldridge. Marvin Mitchum, a freelance writer-photographer from Copperopolis and a Vietnam-era veteran remarked, “One of the things that amazed me was the number of motorcycles. There had to be at least one hundred of them.” The VVA-391 Motorcycle Group was led by VVA California State Council President, Bob Johnston of San Jose and the group’s director Al Sickle of Murphys. Behind them was the American Legion Riders Chapter 108 of Amador. Then there was the Combat Veterans Riders with riders from Hanford, Jamestown, Sonora, and Stockton. There was another group called the Submarine Riders who had stopped at Harley-Davidson in Jamestown and were told about the parade for Vietnam Veterans and as veterans they wanted to be in the parade. There were also many veterans who weren’t members of any group. The Marine Corps League of Modesto detachment 019 was also represented in the parade. As for others in the parade, there were two from Arizona and two from Washington State. VVA-989 from Reno was in the parade with 10 of its members. The Special Forces Chapter 23 from San Francisco had 15 members. There were VVA members from Fresno, Escondido, Modesto, Jackson, Mokelumne, Novato, Hollister, San Andreas, Angels Camp, Merced, Turlock, Wallace, Lockford, and Amasdor as well as every nook and cranny of Tuolumne County. Dommes of the American Legion Riders said, “Thank you, thank you for doing this…for giving us the opportunity to finally honor our Vietnam Veterans. We enjoyed ourselves very much.” After the parade, VVA-391 ensured that all parade participants had a free lunch from the Mobile Barbecue hut of Outlaws BarBQ of Sonora owned by Paul Kennedy a Vietnam veteran and member of VVA-391, and Janet Kennedy. The Brothers in Blues, a local band led by Frank Verbeck who is also a Vietnam Veteran played after the parade in the park across from the Veterans Memorial Hall on Washington Street.. Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 391 is the largest chapter in the state and once the dust settles from this parade from the additional members who joined at the parade, the chapter will be in seventh place in the nation out of more than 650 chapters.
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