VietNow National Magazine

Rockford VietNow Color Guard
Guarding the Colors

by Christian Nelson, VietNow National Editor

Photo above: Rockford VietNow Color Guard members: Mike Parker, Darrell Gilgan, Don Norman, and Dave Scott.

When William Backes, a homeless Vietnam veteran was beaten up and killed in Rockford, Illinois a few years ago, he didn’t have a lot of friends left to come to his funeral. The years since the war hadn’t been easy for him, and by the time of his death there were only a few family members who still remembered him.

That’s when the Rockford Charter Chapter and the McHenry VietNow chapters stepped in. Rockford VietNow chaplain Bob Theroux officiated at the services, and the Rockford VietNow Color Guard did the military honors. A year later, the two VietNow chapters took the money sent in the memory of William Backes, and planted a tree in his name at a scenic spot near the Rock River in Rockford.

Funerals, parades, flag raisings, whenever and wherever, the Rockford VietNow Color Guard is likely to be there, dressed in camouflage jungle fatigues, VietNow hats, bearing ceremonial M-1 rifles, and always honoring the red, white, and blue flag.

Darrell Gilgan is co-chairman of the Color Guard along with long-time VietNow member Mike Parker, and he remembers that it wasn’t always like this. Darrell had heard about VietNow for years, but never really thought it was for him because he wasn’t an “in-country vet.” He’d been in the Air Force during the Vietnam years, but had served in Guam, Hawaii, and New Mexico and just felt VietNow was something he couldn’t be a part of.

A couple of chance encounters with VietNow members led to more curiosity on his part, and finally one hot August night in 1990 Darrell decided to go to a VietNow meeting to see what it was all about. “I remember getting out of the car feeling kinda bad, like maybe I wouldn’t fit in or something, feeling like maybe I wouldn’t belong there,” Darrell remembers. Then suddenly, he heard someone yelling out the upstairs window of the building, “Hey, here comes Darrell Gilgan!” It turns out this was Cam Linder, Rockford Chapter President at the time, and he recognized Darrell from high school days. Darrell walked into the meeting and says he felt at home right away. “It was great. The first people to welcome me were the combat vets. I’ll never forget it. It was like coming home,” says Darrell.

It wasn’t long before Darrell joined the Color Guard and not long after that became one of the leaders. He wasn’t really too much interested in marching and parades, but when someone asked him about becoming part of the color guard he decided it might be a great way to honor other vets and also the POW/MIAs. “What the heck,” he thought. “I’ll give it a shot.”

Leading the color guard is more than just marching and standing at attention. There’s lots of work to be done organizing and calling members to get them lined up for events. “We don’t do any fancy maneuvers or spinning rifles. We mostly walk pretty loosely, but we do take things seriously. Honoring the flag and honoring our fellow vets is what it’s all about,” Darrell says. “And we always dress in jungle fatigues, our cammies.” No dress uniforms, nothing too fancy. “Cammies...that’s who we are.”

Right now, the Color Guard has around twenty members, and it takes eleven members to make up the full, ceremonial Color Guard. Typically in a parade, the front row would consist of two weapons bearers and three flag bearers, carrying the U.S. flag, the POW/MIA flag, and the VietNow flag. In the second row is the Color Guard Commander for the day, and in the third row would be five more flags representing the various armed services. “It’s not easy to get that many guys out at one time because we all have jobs, but we do the best we can,” says Darrell. Weekends work out best of course, but especially for events such as funerals, the Color Guard sometimes works with as few as four or five people.


Darrell says the reactions from the crowds at parades is always fantastic. “Lots of other people come and march along with us, we get huge applause, and it’s always fun,” he says. But sometimes things don’t always go according to plan.

"One time,” Darrell says, “we’d had several years where it always rained on the Fourth of July in Winnebago. So here it was again, and we were forming up for the parade and it was just raining really hard. The fire trucks are always first in the parades and usually our VietNow Color Guard is right behind the fire trucks.” Darrell was taking shelter from the rain in another guy’s car, and the other members were in line, waiting in the chapter’s van. Darrel remembers, “Suddenly, I saw them just take off. The fire trucks, the van, everything, just gone.” Thinking the parade had been cancelled, and the group had all gone to his house, that’s where Darrell headed. Nope, no one there. Back toward town, Darrell sees the whole parade is underway, in spite of the heavy downpour. “There were the fire trucks, and right behind them was the VietNow van rolling down the parade route. I jumped out with my umbrella, and got right up alongside the van. It was crazy. There I was, with the umbrella, marching in the pouring rain, calling cadence, and all the guys were warm and dry there inside the van, stomping their feet. Probably the first time they’d ever all been in step at the same time,” Darrell laughs.

So, it’s always a good time, and it’s always fun. And the camaraderie is fantastic. And even though they always maintain a proper and fitting decorum, there’s always a chance to wave to friends in the crowd. Darrell has been Rockford Chapter President, Chapter Treasurer, and he’s now on the VietNow National Board of Directors. He also does the chapter newsletter along with his wife, Linda. “I like VietNow, and I like being in the Color Guard, and it’s something I’ll probably stay with forever. At least for as long as I can still remember which is my left foot,” Darrell says.

Things are more serious at the funerals. “It’s something we like doing, even if we didn’t know the person who died, and even if they’re veterans from another era. If we’re asked, and if there’s any way possible to get enough guys together, we’ll do it.” Probably a half dozen times a year, Darrell and some of the other Color Guard members find themselves bestowing final honors for a departed veteran. “Most of the time our service consists of an honor guard, a flag folding, and a presentation of the flag to the family. We also do a firing squad,” says Darrell.

William Backes didn’t know the men who came to honor him after he was killed on the streets. He’d never met them during his time on earth. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was that this was a man who had served his country years ago. He’d gone to Vietnam when most other people said they wouldn’t go. And now the Rockford VietNow Color Guard was here to see that this man would not be completely forgotten. An honorable task, performed by a group of most honorable men.

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