Honoring a Local Hero

For 13 years, when James Riley has returned to the town where he graduated from high school, he's been greeted with a list of things to do around his parents' home.

On Sunday, the Army sergeant was welcomed with a parade and fireworks from his hometown and thanks from the state's most prominent politicians.

Through his family, Riley has said he does not consider himself a hero, just a soldier who was doing his job near Nasiriyah on March 23 when Iraqi soldiers ambushed his unit, the Fort Bliss, Texas-based 507th Maintenance Company. Nine members of the unit were killed and six were taken prisoner.

As the senior soldier among those captured, it was up to Riley to surrender. Among those taken prisoner was Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued from an Iraqi prison April 1.

Riley was among those shown on Iraqi television within hours of the capture. He answered basic questions in a clipped tone.

Riley and six other POWs, including two Apache helicopter pilots based at Fort Hood, Texas, were released April 13.

Riley has remained mum about his experience. He granted interviews only on a plane from Iraq to Kuwait soon after his release.

"We were like Custer. We were surrounded. We had no working weapons. We couldn't even make a bayonet charge. We would have been mowed down," Riley said then.

The Army says he is under orders not to speak with the media and his parents say it's better that way.

His mother, Jane Riley, said most of the photographs she has of her son could not be shared because he's making an obscene gesture in them -- his sign that he didn't want even his family to photograph him.

Since Riley arrived in Pennsauken a week ago, journalists who have all but taken up residence in his neighborhood and have photographed him pulling weeds in the yard.

But Riley was expected to read a written statement at the celebration in his honor Sunday. U.S. Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews and Gov. James E. McGreevey were expected to be part of the festivities in Pennsauken, a blue-collar town near Philadelphia.

Riley moved with his family to Pennsauken from New Zealand when he was 10 years old.

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