Today, U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced a resolution in support of the establishment of “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.” Designating March 30, 2010, as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” honors the return home of our armed service members after serving in Vietnam.
“There’s no question that our troops served our country bravely and faithfully during the Vietnam War, and these veterans deserve our recognition and gratitude,” Burr said. “Unfortunately, when these service members returned home, they were caught in the crossfire of public debate about our nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War. As a result, these brave men and women never received the welcome reception and recognition they deserved.”
“On March 30, 1973, our United States Armed Forces completed the withdrawal of combat troops from Vietnam,” Senator Inhofe said. “Our veterans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam deserve the greatest honor and respect - honor and respect they were denied when they arrived home. I am proud to join my colleagues in support of this resolution to establish a day in honor of the return of all troops from the Vietnam War.”
The United States became involved in Vietnam because policy-makers believed that if South Vietnam fell to a communist government, communism would spread throughout the rest of Southeast Asia. The US Armed Forces began serving in an advisory role to the South Vietnamese in 1961, and in 1965, ground combat troops were sent into Vietnam. After many years of combat, all US troops were withdrawn from Vietnam on March 30, 1973, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Therefore, March 30, 2010, is an appropriate day to establish “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.”
More than 58,000 members of the United States Armed Forces lost their lives and more than 300,000 were wounded in Vietnam. The establishment of a “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” would serve as a small way to honor these men and women who served our country in Vietnam throughout the war.
INFORMATION FROM A NEWS RELEASE SENT TO THE WWAY NEWSCHANNEL 3 NEWSROOM.
I couldn't have said it any
I couldn't have said it any better myself, BRADFORD. And the damn VA is still lying and denying Vietnam Veterans benifits by people that were not even born then, and that sucks. S/F ROGER FLEMING
Vietnam pain of being dishonored
This is a nice jesture, but it does not help the pain of so many years of fighting to get help for the unseen wounds most Vietnam Veterans still carry with them day to day.
America called and we respnoded to that call without thought because we were needed and proud to do so. nothing anyone will say can excuse the treatment we received from our own country bestowed upon us. no prade,no thank you
no welcome home. what we did get is spit on, called baby killers and some names i will not say here. many of us have a wound that has no purple heart attached to, and famlies broken apart never to be recovered. all because america. refused to help us for almost 35 years
so a day to say welcome home means nothing to us, because when we need you; you threw us awayas if we had the plague.
NOTHING can fix that!
What happened to you Vietnam Veterans was atrocious! They put you in there to fight and solve a problem but limited you down to near nothing. Then you get that wonderful "welcome home" when you get back. There is nothing that can be done to rectify that for you. Just be sure to thank your national journalists for portraying you as murderers, theives and a band of soldiers gone bad. No matter that you had to consider a pitiful, crying Vietnamese child running up to you for help with 30 sticks of dynamite strapped down under his little shirt.
The same thing is happening to our soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan today. The media cuts them down, cuts our leadership down (when Bush was President) and they come home in shame because of what the public is hearing from the media. They never hear of the great things that have been accomplished, the schools, rights for the women, the rebuilding of infrastructure...no...none of that.
It is no less than a crying shame that our media propagandizes such a slanted look at our overseas war efforts to the American people.
Those brave soldiers over there are risking their lives daily to protect the very freedom that the journalists use against them. I've witnessed this going on for years.
It is clearly left-wing, biased reporting. The news today isn't really news, it's propoganda and the "simple ones" believe it, just like in Vietnam.
I also know of one who will
I also know of one who will never return home from RVN. His name is Captain Robin F Gatwood from Hickory,NC. Him and five others were onboard an EB-66C aircraft when it was hit by a SA-2 missile. The only one to escape the aircraft was Lt.Col Iceal Hambelton. The others had to have been torn apart and burned to bits by the exploding plane. The movie BAT-21 was filmed about this account of the war.
Hambelton was on the ground for eleven days before being rescued by Navy Seal Tom Norris who received the Medal Of Honor for his actions for saving Hambelton and one other. There is a lot of good info about this on the net if anyone is interested.
S/F ROGER FLEMING USMC RECON
Vietnam Heroes
VERY sad to say all of our Vietnam Heroes did NOT return home - I know of AT LEAST one of our own hometown heroes is STILL listed as missing in action. How do we celebrate the return of ALL Vietnam Veterans when that is just not true???? I heartily endorse celebrating the return of the Veterans that have come home, but let's just make sure we DO NOT forget that some - even in our hometown did not!!!
Seriously??
Okay, I do indeed appreciate that some are trying to right a wrong that was perpetrated against the men and women who fought for our country during the Vietnam War.
However, I can't help but feel it's also somewhat of a slap in the face. One of the most glaring facets of that particular war is that our nation apparently doesn't have a problem with leaving Americans behind.
So while I'm glad to be given the opportunity to thank those who served and came home to find hostility and resentment, I can't help but ache for the ones who still have not come home. NO, all U.S. troops were NOT withdrawn from Vietnam.
And you know what else? I'm not sure which scenario hurts more: Those who did not return died, and our government is okay with leaving them behind...OR they're still alive in a living hell and wondering why in the world no one cares enough to seek them out and bring them back.
Our government has also decided that no remains from the Vietnam War will be a part of the tomb of the unknowns. Look it up...this is a FACT. So our government has given up on looking for our MIA/KIA and has given up on remembering and honoring them as well.
It's just shameful, and it's just wrong.
Tomb of the Unknown
They didn't skip over Vietnam out of spite. The fact is that science and medical technology/records have advanced so far that there ARE no Vietnam remains that are "unknown."
The same holds true for Desert Storm.