On April 1, 1970 in South Vietnam, First Lieutenant Cleveland Floyd Brigman of Dartmouth was serving with the base perimeter defense company in the eighth cavalry regiment when the base came under attack.

The operations center took a direct hit, knocking out all communications. Brigman picked up a radio and moved through the impacting area to a position where he could communicate with his team to adjust their fires.

“He continued to adjust their artillery fire even when the enemy round impacted nearby him, wounding him,” Matthew Brouillette, Dartmouth veterans service officer, said during the Elm Street Cemetery ceremony that concluded the 2025 Memorial Day Parade Monday, May 26.

He received a Civil Star for his gallant action. However, during that attack, Brigman, at only 24 years old, was killed.

Brouillette read a statement from Brigman’s infantry commander: “Our country has lost a truly remarkable man and I have lost a friend.”

Brigman is just one of the 34 men from Dartmouth “who made the ultimate sacrifice for our community,” Brouillette said. During the ceremony, Joseph Toomey, Jr., sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, veteran of the Vietnam War and commander of the VFW Post 9059, read each of the names.

“As Dartmouth Veterans Officer, it has been my pleasure to serve those in our community who have served this great nation, whether on land or on the ocean or in the sky,” Brouillette said. “They have all shared the same quality: courage. The courage to put words into action and leave behind a familiar safety of home and embark on a journey of peril and uncertainty.”

During the parade, Select Board Chair Heidi Silva Brooks carried a flag from each military service agency where members of her family served. 

“Memorial Day is more than a day off,” she said. “It’s more than backyard barbecues, family reunions and the unofficial start of summer,” she said. “It is a sacred day of remembrance — a moment of pause to reflect and to say, ‘We remember. We are grateful. We will never forget.’”

“Every flag we see waving along the parade route, every marching step, every salute — they all echo a promise, a promise that we, as a community, will carry forward the legacy of those who laid down their lives so we could live freely and in peace,” Silva Brooks added.

She encouraged everyone to renew their own promise to be citizens “worthy of that sacrifice.”

Along the parade route, Charlotte Rebello, 11, was joined by Kaius Francis, 7, Penelope Art, 8, Bridget Ftechschulte, 11, Eleanor Art, 11, Emma Pusey, 11, and Elizabella Francis, 11, to serve lemonade. 

“This is something I do every year,” Rebello said. “Sometimes it's really hot out for Memorial Day, so I think it’s a good way to make money and for people to just have a drink and watch the Memorial Parade.”

Kaius noted in addition to the lemonade they had bracelets, slime and tiny toys for sale.

He said the group was “celebrating the people that saved our country” and are considering donating some of their profits to veteran charities. 

Bridget said she thought the lemonade stand was fun and had brought along a small possum plushie that she was considering naming “Lemony.”

Some of the kids said they had veterans in their own families, with Bridget highlighting her great grandfather who flew a blimp in World War II and the Francis’ noting their own grandfather who was in attendance at the parade with them.