Honoring the fallen

Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine couldn’t help but be moved by the power of walking amongst the thousands of tombstones that fill Arlington National Cemetery.
“It is such an emotional experience,” Vidrine said. “It is a long walk through the cemetery but it is well worth it. To have the opportunity to salute those graves and see those markers, and to be able to honor those family members that have been left behind --- that means the world to me.”
Vidrine and as well as two members of the Ville Platte City Council, represented the Louisiana Municipal Association, as they attended the National League of Cities (NLC) Congressional City Conference held at Marriot Convention Center in Washington D.C. in March.
The week-long event allowed the local civic leaders to take classes to better themselves in leading their respective municipalities when it comes to state and federal funding, but also having time to meet with lawmakers including U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy.
For the second straight year, Vidrine and council members also took part or witnessed a wreath-laying ceremony conducted with full honors at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier inside the famed cemetery.
The ceremony was awe-inspiring to those who had traveled from Ville Platte.
“This was my second time going there,” Councilman Bryant Riggs said. “I was taken back by the ceremony. The laying of the wreaf the honor guard and everything they did. The spirit of it -- you truly feel in the air and that makes you feel proud to be an American. I wish everyone could go there. It would make you look at this country a whole lot differently.”
“It was an amazing experience,” Councilman Donald Sam said. “It was something everybody should go to see. I never thought I would see something like that in my life.”
The Ville Platte leaders though didn’t only take part in that wreath ceremony, as the trio also found two fallen soldiers from their hometown that were buried inside the cemetery.
Those two men were: Oscar M. Dardeau Jr., a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, who served during both the Korean and Vietnam Wars and died May 24, 1974; and Willie Ray Roy Sr., a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, who served during the Vietnam War, and who passed away on July 21, 2015.
So the local leaders decided to honor them as well by laying a dozen red roses on each grave and saluting each solider, who astonishingly were buried across the street from one another.
“To find two people from Ville Platte that were buried there and to go and pay respect to our own people was just amazing,” Vidrine said. “Personally I think it would be disrespectful to come that close to their grave sites and not pay our respects.”
For Riggs, who served in the Army National Guard for nine years, he too was moved by not only getting to pay respect to a fellow solider, but also to the father of children that Riggs himself grew up around.
“I knew Mr. Roy’s family personally,” Riggs said. “Two of the brothers I ran track with and played basketball with. I never met their dad before and meeting him there I could feel his presence. It was powerful.”
Vidrine says that as long as herself and members of the city council are fortunate enough to attend the conference in D.C., that she will make it a priority that the two men who fought so bravely for their country will continue to be honored in the years to come.
“Both of the families were moved by us thinking enough of them to pay respect of their loved ones,” Vidrine said. “They are now our loved ones. They are part of the greater Ville Platte family and want to make sure they are never forgotten.”