Local Vietnam Veterans To Be Honored

“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic.” 

President Richard Nixon

Sunday, March 30, 2014, has been proclaimed by Congressional Resolution to be National Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.  On Saturday, March 29, 2014, Chapter 1073 of the Vietnam Veterans of America will recognize Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Morristown, Tennessee.  Color Guards from the U. S. Marine Corp., Morristown Police Department and Carson Newman ROTC   will be posting the colors.  Many-Bears Grinder, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs, Barry Rice, President of the Tennessee State Council , Vietnam Veterans of America and Congressman Phil Roe will be on hand to honor local veterans.

Forty years after the involvement of the United States in Vietnam ended, the war is still misunderstood by many Americans, and fresh in the minds of those who served in Southeast Asia.

America’s involvement began in the mid 1950s when President Eisenhower sent advisors and financial aid to South Vietnam’s military personnel.  The first American casualty was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., who was killed on June 8, 1956.  His son, Richard Fitzgibbon III would die in action only 9 short years later.  This fact alone speaks to the terrible cost of this war.  In 1964, the United States entered the war as an active participant after U.S. destroyers were attacked by torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.  The cost to the country was astronomical.  8,744,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Southeast Asia, with an average age of 23.  58148 Americans lost their lives in that foreign land.  Despite the Military Draft, two thirds of those who served and 70 % of those who died were volunteers. Tennessee lost 1291 brave Volunteers.

Veterans who returned from Vietnam were not treated as returning heroes. Partially due to the political climate of the time, their accomplishments were sometimes met with a lack of respect and they were sometimes viewed as a reminder of the controversial war, the social unrest in the United States or what many saw as a war that the United States lost.  In fact, United States soldiers never lost a battle of consequence in Vietnam.  President Richard Nixon began to pull American troops out of Vietnam in 1969, yet North Vietnam did not achieve complete victory until 1975.

Today, this war still exacts a cost from those who served.  23% of the nation’s homeless are veterans and 70% of those are Vietnam Veterans.  Many groups, such as the Vietnam Veterans TN State Council, have formed to address the needs of this group of American heroes.  This weekend many “Welcome Home” activities are planned to honor Vietnam Veterans across the nation. It is a “Welcome Home” that is often considered to be 40 years overdue.