Jane Randolph remembers the party thrown for her brother Richard and his friends the night before they shipped off to Vietnam.
She also can’t forget the moment she and her family found out that one of those friends — who was fighting alongside her brother — was killed during battle. It’s why the Merrillville woman dressed her three-year-old French bulldog, Maxwell, in fighter-pilot gear and attended the Victory for Veterans motorcycle ride Sunday.
She wanted to pay her respect.
“It hurt me a lot, and it really affected my brother,” Randolph said as Maxwell plopped down in the middle of Wicker Memorial Park in Highland. “But this one, (Maxwell) is the Mac with the cheese.”
Ridership was slightly down for the widely popular ride, no doubt because the sky spent most of the morning spitting rain. Nevertheless, the day turned out nicely, North Township Trustee Adrian Santos said.
“It’s especially important because it’s the 25th anniversary,” he said, adding that everyone mostly came out to celebrate without bringing their political affiliations into the mix.
Ride keynote speaker and Purple Heart recipient Lou Cavelli, of St. John, said he was 17 years old when he enlisted in the U.S Marine Corps and was among the first troops to arrive in 1965. When he came home at 19, no amount of adapting to his surroundings overseas could reconcile for him the fact that he made it home alive.
One of the greatest things he did in his later years, he said, was take an Honor Flight. He told everyone they need to do it for themselves.
“They give you a guardian, and mine told me that ‘you have to realize one thing: That was then, this is now,’” he said.
James Davis, of Highland, brought his grandson, Hunter Hansen, of Michigan City, to the ride. A member of the Wall Gang, the Vietnam veteran said he and Hunter rode out to Washington D.C. to see the real Vietnam Memorial this summer.
“This is my 10th year for this ride, and my fifth year for escorting the (traveling wall),” Davis said. “It’s always interesting the people you meet, the friends you make every year.”
Proceeds from the ride will fund vet initiatives throughout the year, Santos said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
