David Vojvodich served two tours in Vietnam, and on Memorial Day, he remembers those who didn’t come back.
Vojvodich, a 76-year-old lifelong resident of the Canaryville neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, prefers not to talk about his service during the two-decade long conflict. But Monday’s holiday is sacred for him, and a time to reflect.
“There are people I left in Vietnam that I lost,” he said.
On Monday morning, Vojvodich sat at a table outside of the William McKinley American Legion Post 231 as the McKinley Park Memorial Day parade got ready to kick off. Groups of veterans mixed with community members as they prepared to make a nearly two-mile loop through the Southwest Side neighborhood.
On a day that was sunny and clear but on the cool side while people lined the streets in light jackets, waving small American flags.
Vojvodich sat with fellow veteran Ernie Prohaska as the smell of hotdogs wafted over the crowd.
“Veterans Day is for us,” said Prohaska, who is the Post 231 chaplain and a Navy veteran. “Memorial Day is for the fallen.”
Shortly after 10 a.m., the parade got rolling with motorcycles leading the pack. Floats for local politicians, including 12th Ward Ald. Julia Ramirez and state Rep. Theresa Mah, passed by as marching bands from local schools regaled the parade-goers with music.
Two-year-old Aiden Beltran laughed from his stroller and pointed at firetrucks, which moved through the streets with sirens blaring.
“He loves the firetrucks,” his mother, Stephanie Beltran, said.
Monday was Aiden’s first parade, and he watched from a street corner with his mother and grandmother.
“A lot of our family is police or military, so we come out to support,” Beltran said.
As a marching band passed, the high schools students played “Tequila” by the The Champs, pausing their instruments to shout the namesake lyric.
After beginning at the local public library, the parade was set to loop back at the American Legion post for some food and a ceremony.
Ed Kearney, the 76-year-old sergeant-at-arms at the post, remembers the fear of being drafted during the Vietnam War when he was in his late teens. All five of the boys in his family ended up serving, he said.
“There was nothing you could do,” he said. “I wasn’t going to college.”
Kearney ended up stationed at Fort Bragg, a base in North Carolina.
Now, for the holiday he gathers with his fellow veterans to pay tribute to the fallen troops.
“We honor the ones that didn’t come back,” he said.
