Riverdale Park Honors Veterans This Friday

Veterans living in Riverdale Park and University Park served their country with honor and on Friday, Veterans Day, it is the citizens of those towns who will honor them.

Though it can be hard to identify a veteran in everyday life, there are many living and working in the townsof Riverdale Park and University Park.

One such veteran is 68-year-old resident David Fosse. Fosse and his wife Jill have lived in University Park since 1996, and more than 40 years ago, he served as a medical corpsman during the Vietnam War as a member of the 145th Combat Aviation Battalion.

Fosse enlisted in the military in 1968, the day before he was going to be drafted, so that he could have a choice about where he go. He chose to train to be a medical corpsman because prior to his service he’d been working as clerk in an emergency room on the south side of Chicago.

As a medical corpsman, Fosse received basic medical training, and an additional year of training before his deployment.

“I am extremely grateful for the medical training I received,” Fosse said.  “I got great satisfaction out of successfully casting a broken leg, removing cysts, treating a hand swollen from being punctured by a dirty ice pick, and so on.”

After returning from Vietnam, with the assistance of the GI Bill, Fosse returned to college and eventually received his MBA in hospital administration.

Fosse comes from a family with a long history of military service, starting with is father, who was a World War II bomber pilot; an uncle who served in Korea; several family members who served in Vietnam; a cousin who served in Panama and later in Afghanistan during the Gulf War; another cousin who is a commander in the Coast Guard; up to his nephew, an Army captain recently returned from Afghanistan.

“We have done our part and I am proud of our service,” said Fosse.

The town of Riverdale Park will be honoring veterans on Friday at the town’s Veterans' Memorial across from the MARC Station with a wreath-laying ceremony. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m.