Celebrating Veterans: Vietnam War veteran to speak at Monroe County Fair

MONROE — The legacy of Vietnam veterans and their efforts to help current veterans and military families with their veteran benefits will be the focus of a speech on July 29 at the Monroe County Fair . The fair is celebrating Veterans Day on Monday.

John Riling, president of the Michigan State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America, will give the main address during a program at 2:30 p.m. Monday of fair week. The event will be held at the white tent at the northeast corner of the fairgrounds at M-50 and South Raisinville Road. A parade of veterans around the fairgrounds will precede the program. Any veteran who cannot walk in the procession can ride in a golf cart provided by the fair board.

Wayne Blank Sr., an Air Force veteran and service officer for the Corl Gaynier Post 1942, AMVETS, will be the emcee. Miss Monroe County Reese Johnson will sing "America the Beautiful," and Rosalind Gaston, a member of the Auxiliary to Monroe Post 1138, Veterans of Foreign Wars, will sing the national anthem. Her husband, Wade, a post member, will give the invocation and benediction. The River Raisin Chorus and Bedford Cloggers will provide entertainment.

Richard Janssens, a veteran and a lifelong farmer, will award prizes from Monroe County Farm Bureau to the oldest veteran, youngest veteran and the veteran with the longest service present.

Riling, 74, lives in Garden City, but grew up in Riverview. He enlisted in the Army in 1968 and trained at Fort Hood, Texas. After serving in Germany for a year, he fought in Vietnam with the 18th Military Police Brigade.

He said his talk will focus on those who served during the Vietnam War.

"I'm a firm believer and proud of the Vietnam generation," he said in a phone interview. "We didn't talk much about what happened in the war. We had the GI Bill for education, but vets who served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield were not getting the same benefits as the World War II vets got. We welcomed them coming home and took it upon ourselves to (help) generations of veterans behind us get better benefits."

Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news and high school sports content.

He also serves on a national level as director of VVA's Region 5, which includes Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Riling is retired and worked at the Chrysler plant in Trenton. Before that, he was employed on the support staff at Wayne County Community College.

He is married and has three children from a previous marriage.

Dean Cousino is a retired Monroe News reporter who covered the Monroe County Fair for decades.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Celebrating Veterans: Vietnam War veteran to speak at Monroe County Fair