March 29 is National Vietnam Veterans day.
VA thanks and honors our approximately 7 million living Vietnam Veterans and the 10 million families of those who served during the Vietnam War period.
Since the birth of the United States, no single generation of Americans has been spared the responsibility of defending freedom by force of arms. More than 44 million American men and women have sacrificed and served in times of war. Their collective service and individual sacrifices have safeguarded the cherished concepts embodied in our constitution.
Most military families endure the hardship of separation, uncertainty and fear, but the families of our Vietnam Veterans also witnessed their husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and fathers and mothers returning home to a nation in turmoil. They watched as the vast majority received no formal recognition for their service or welcome home ceremonies hosted by their communities.
Like Veterans returning from today’s battlefields, those who served in Vietnam came home with both physical and unseen injuries of war. Many of the unseen injuries suffered by our Vietnam Veterans went undiagnosed and weren’t understood by our medical community or citizenry as they are now. Veterans were left to meet these challenges without the assistance available today.
Emotional video illustrates one Veteran’s experience
We offer our nation’s thanks to as many as possible of the living Vietnam Veterans and the families of the Veterans who served from Nov. 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975.
Too many who fought in Vietnam never experienced that return home or the chance to marry and have children or grandchildren. Their futures were cut short, and their hopes and dreams along with it. The families of those who didn’t return whose names are etched on The Wall experienced the painful loss of a loved one without the collective support of their nation.
These inclusive dates maximize the recognition of United States military Veterans who served on active duty during the Vietnam War period. No distinction is being made between Veterans who served in-country, in-theater or who were stationed elsewhere during the Vietnam War period. All were called to serve and the overwhelming majority served honorably and admirably.
58,307 names appear on the Wall in Washington, D.C. Many tens of thousands were disabled. Approximately 7,500 women, the majority of whom were nurses, served in Vietnam. Eight were killed in theater, all of whom were nurses. And 1,627 are still considered missing in action and their families await word of their fate.
We have the opportunity to welcome them home
Some continued to serve in uniform while many returned to civilian life, started families and immediately began contributing to their communities. Some took up service as police officers, teachers, doctors and nurses. From town halls and boardrooms to the nation’s capital, others became leaders and elected public servants.
As World War II and the Korean War reached their 50th anniversary, our nation commemorated our warriors’ service and sacrifice. Now, we have the opportunity to do what should have been done 50 years ago: Welcome our Vietnam Veterans home with honor and thank them and their families for their service and sacrifice.
Across the country, thousands of local, state and federal organizations are hosting events each year to thank and honor our Vietnam Veterans and their families. The commemoration’s cause is indeed noble and thanking and honoring these Veterans and their families is the right thing to do.
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I was in Nam in Nov. 67-68. Served with the 173rd Airborne in Dak To as a replacement for the ones who died on hill 875. I was a medic with B Company (Support)
Was assigned Vietnam duty July 10th, 1967 thru July 9th, 1968. Tet was in full swing during that time and was a period of unmitigated fear. Never spent so much time so scared that I hardly spoke and kept to myself. Miracle of miracles survived.
However, flying in Bangkok on my way home, overheard a strange tale. Does anybody out there know why Vietnam was called Spellman;s war. If you should why, U may understand then why we went! The tale is amazing, because I’ve researched it since 1973 when attending a meeting by Congressman Larry McDonald in Grand Junction, Colorado. Larry by the way was a brain surgeon before becoming a congressman from Georgia, he is also the lone representative among the group of representatives that flew to South Korea to celebrate the armstice. It was flight 007 that supposedly was shot down. However, my fellow veterans, after believing that for many years, I learned from witnesses, of those that shared his imprisonment in Northern Russia that wasn’t the case.
However, Spellman’s war and Larry’s disappearance are somewhat related in that they were both caused by the same entity. And after all this time, looking into the history of US wars, protecting Democracy or the homeland has been the furthest thing from the truth.
From a Vietnam Veteran that also saw Iraq during pacification. 2005.
I am the wife of a deceased Vietnam Veteran as well as mother of his two sons. A year and 5 months after my husband passed away, our firstborn son passed away. Our son was only 45 years old when he died. He was having such a difficult time over the loss of his so loved father. I, as his mother, believe he died from stress of a broken heart. Our son’s death was a tragedy in itself but that’s another story. I can’t think of what happened there. My 2nd son, and only child left, is having to deal with these unbelievable losses. We lost 1/2 of our close-knit family within a year and 5 months of each other. It’s so hard for me to see my only son now living without having these two wonderful male figures in his life as well as me not having them in my life. Only those who have experienced such loss/losses can relate to our emptiness. These losses are forevermore with us. I honor all Vietnam Veterans, not only those veterans who died on the battlefield in Southeast Asia, but for each and every veteran who lived and then died later from war related illnesses. Also, I honor all veterans living today with illnesses, pain and suffering and memories of the aftermath of that war as well as the sadness they felt upon their return. My veteran husband never talked about his military experiences. He left all aspects of that war behind and dove into the private sector of life. He worked so hard for his family. He didn’t have much free time in life to spare. Therefore, he went for years and years before knowing he even had military benefits or war-related illnesses. What a help that would have been for him and our family if he had been aware of such benefits. Not until several years after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma did his doctor tell him he should check with the VA to see if he had military benefits related to his heart condition as well as his lymphoma condition. He shouldn’t have had to learn this from his doctor. He should have known of these benefits and war-related illnesses through his government. These veteran-related benefits as well as these war-related illnesses should have been broadcasted year after year through communications by television, through veterans’ commercials and by all means of communications. I am disappointed as a wife and mother of these precious lost lives that possible could have had many more happier and healthier years for themselves as well as their loved ones. Just like the draft back then, our government knew exactly how to get in touch with every young male who was turning 18 telling them that they had to serve their country. Tell me why our government couldn’t have kept a track on these veterans the same way once they came home. As one knows, it takes years for such illnesses to surface. These were very young men and most probably never thought their health issues were related to a war they fought so many years ago. This should have never happened. They should have been alerted by our government not through a doctor after it’s way too late. Thanks to all veterans who served our country in the past and those serving today, especially those who fought in foreign wars. I appreciate having the opportunity to express these heart- felt feelings.on behalf of my precious husband and son. Also, to let others know the tremendous emptiness and loss my only son and I have today. My son today has no sibling or father who were the light of his life and mine as well. They will forever live in our hearts but sure wish it wasn’t in our hearts but in our every day lives. My son and I feel blessed in so many ways to have had them in our lives and miss them so.❤️?
I was drafted April 1968, US Army, Basic Training Fort Jackson SC. I attended Flight Training at Fort Rucker AL shipped out to Vietnam May 1969, joined 45th Medical Co, Air Ambulance and flew “Dustoff missions for the next 24 months, leaving Vietnam April 1971.
I served from July 1971 to July 1975 states side, Richard C. Howell I would do it all over again if asked.
[Editor: Do NOT publish your sensitive personal information on the internet. I have deleted it from your comment.]
Do you realize that our American military veterans is the population in the United States that doesn’t have full Dental care benefits whatsoever??
It’s true!
Unless you’ve been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor or by some miracle, you were granted a 100% VA rating, you’ll never know what it’s like to be able to sit in a dental chair and finally get some very important dental care to improve their lives and all those around them. Getting a 100% VA rating is equal to winning the Mega Millions Lottery like four weeks in a roll.
The general public has had this perception since the 1960’s that veteran homelessness and veteran suicides are directly tied to the abuse of drugs and alcohol, which in some cases, it’s very true but in most cases today, these issues are directly tied to the criminal lack of full Dental care benefits for that offered a blank check to our country for our lives and were fortunate enough to “return to the world” as we use to say in Vietnam.
My question has been for decades have been, “When is our VA Healthcare System going to acknowledge “Teeth” as an important and vital part of the Human body?”
As a former veteran volunteer with a clipboard, making contacts with homeless veterans, to get them enrolled into the VA Healthcare System, help to find them housing, hot meals, rehab, and other avenues for them to apply for, but the one important thing I could not help them with, was the overwhelming desire to sit in a dental chair at any VA hospital, clinic or any VA facility to get their teeth fixed.
When asked what lead them on the path to homelessness, was it drugs or alcohol or both? Their answer was always the same, the complete lack of full dental care benefits.
No employers, even if their company offered a dental plan coverage for their employees, would ever hire a veteran with missing and broken teeth in fear that their dental plan insurance rates would go up and become unaffordable for their existing employees.
When these homeless veterans were asked how they first got hooked on street drugs, question right on the forms, the answer is probably not going to shock you, they got start from having abscess teeth and the doctors at the VA Hospital Emergence Rooms wasn’t allowed to treat the abscess teeth but were allowed to provide that veteran with the most powerful, lethal and addictive pain medications in the world.
These abscess teeth is what really put these veterans on the dangerous and deadly path to veteran homelessness, drugs, alcohol, divorce, family court system, jail and finally, death.
I’m willing to bet my life that whoever came up with this stupid idea and rules to prevent and not provide our veterans with full dental care benefits has a perfect set of teeth and has regular schedule dental care appointments with a VA dentist…)
The second time that I went to the Tripler ER for a amazingly painful abscess molar, the ER doctor told me something that really shocked me but also made some sense to me at the same time. This ER doctor told me to take advantage of the bottle of powerful pain medications he was about to prescribe me and that I would have enough pain medication tablets to get me through if I took care of the problem myself. To get salt packets from Jack in the Box to pack around the abscess tooth for a day to try to kill the infection that was causing the most pain, take several tablets and a needle nose pliers and yank the abscess tooth myself and that the leftover tablets would get me though the recovery process.
You know what, he was 100% right, which I’ve had to do twice in the last 20+ years now. I have witness this same process of veterans doing this in the parking lot at Tripler VA Hospital ER.
The heavy duty needle nose pliers that I used twice for this is my most important possession that I own today.
I remember an ER nurse that checked me in that day tell me that an abscess tooth is the closest thing for a man to know the pain of a woman giving birth to a new child. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t agree more.
My PCP doctor at the time, Shawn Berry, MD, has referred me to the Dental department at Tripler VA 5-6 times and still have not seen a dentist at Tripler not even once, no follow ups, no evaluations, no nothing to date. A 50% VA rating still doesn’t get you into the door on the third floor of the Dental Department to this very day.
Fact: Veterans is the only population in America without full Dental Care benefits and they are killing themselves at a rate of 22 souls at day nationwide or over 8,000 souls a year and no one at the VA Healthcare System gives a damn about us!
I served in Vietnam 1969 – 1970. I went to the DAV to apply for benefit when Diabetes was included as a covered benefit. I received a 20% disability rating. In 2022, I applied for a higher rating on account of being diagnosed with prostrate cancer. My disability was increased to 100%. So all I can say is go to the DAV.
Wow, I just stumbled across this post and I’m not surprised. In my 76 years I’ve never had 1 Veteran’s day off work, why should I be surprised?
I am one of the many that have been lost in the shuffle over the years and didn’t even find VA healthcare until I was 60 and then it was a challenge.
I hope (The VA) can we learn to treat our young people better. They sacrifice so much of themselves and families for their country, with little pay and little benefits and are threaten to cuts at the first sign of budgetary constraints.
Life is tough enough but to additional stress on our soldiers is too much.
God Bless America…America Bless Your Charges
Terry Montgomery
This is apropos. The article is published on April 3, 2024. No one knew about the “Welcome Home” . Just like the way we were used in the WAR. Sorry I feel used again.
I proudly volunteered to join the 101st while stationed in Germany. We went over as a unit in Dec 67 and did the job. I feel for the families of the guys that never made it home, The VA hospital where I live is better than most and meds come by mail. I’ve had three cancer hits and a few other problems, but always taken care of with great respect. I started going to the reunions and great group of old vets. I don’t do the VFW or American Legion, not into war stories. I guess I look at my service of four years as a volunteer service to be proud of it’s just to bad no one needed a qualified small arms guy when I returned home.
It is April 3rd and I am getting news from news.va.gov, announcing that March 29th is Vietnam Veterans Day. It explained it and states several celebrations across the Country!
THANKS FOR ANNOUNCING VIETNAM VETERANS DAY, after it happened!!!! Only proper for VIETNAM VETERANS!!!!
[Editor: The post published on Friday March 29, and also was published on social media on the same day. It was included in the Wednesday April 3 VetResources email in case you missed it.]
I had the same response. Instead of announcing this event on the day it happens, next year try announcing it a few days ahead of time and then again on the day of the event.
Why in the world was not something done for me instead of receiving a big thanks, I received a discharge, of less favorable, yeah I was dropped at JP in Boston, like the Meth addict I am, toss that aside from 30 plus years of binge drinking,i finallly got sober and have remained as such, of course I also have a brain injury through my stroke of23 yrs ago. goodday folks !
At 76 looking back, can’t help, but think of all the boys lost their lives protecting other countries borders. look at our border today, look at our media, First, I’ve heard of a national Vietnam day. Nice job on your numbers. What a joke.
Leadership is a wonderful thing when you’re going the right way, I don’t need a day to remember how stupid awful and pathetic the leadership of the United States wasted its greatest resources, the members of the arm services, who served and died. I will always remember.
Today is 30 March and I just learned from my brother, who lives in lives in New Zealand, that yesterday was National Vietnam Veterans Day. Really? We are both Vietnam veterans (USMC for me, US Army for him) and a quick local survey among my military veteran friends here in Georgia and surrounding areas informed me that no one, not a single Vietnam veteran or later serving veteran has ever heard of the NVVD. Interesting that such a supposedly important day is completely unknown to us. How appropriate, indeed.
I have filed a claim for VA compensation for various ailments resulting from my service in
Vietnam these ailments include loss of hearing, loss of teeth (3 days after returning from Vietnan all of my top teeth fell out. Sleep Apnea, nightmares. The list goes on. I originally applied July 11, 2023. As of this date I have not received any response
See your local service officer for help. It will take time but if you are persistent you may get your benefits. Don’t give up no matter what. You will be turned down or required to follow up but make every deadline.
Keep calling Brother, DON’T give up…
As a veteran I feel that the failures of the veterans administration have caused the mental distress that I feel is responsible for 50% of all Vietnam veteran suicides is the failures of the veterans administration.
It should not take 48 years for the government to produce military and medical records so that veterans like myself can finally receive benefits before I die of old age is pathetic.
The veterans administration does nothing to help veterans obtain their military records so they can obtain the service disability benefits is beyond shameful.
And the pathetic failure of the department of defenses digitizing military records.
Instead of digitizing records starting with 1985 and working backwards they started with the Spanish-American war and our current ly working on world war I veterans records.
So veterans that have been dead for a hundred years or more important than the Vietnam and those certainly after who still don’t have access to their military records and it’s effed up.
After 40 plus years of dealing with attempting to receive these records with over 25 attempts.
And then discovering in a conversation with a lady in Virginia in charge of military records.
That the VA could have requested my medical records 35 years ago and I would not have had a delay and service connected benefits.
I want to thank everybody at the veterans administration for not doing their job and the patient advocates that do nothing to help the vets and amnyvets another fake organization that did nothing but submitted application.
It’s a total shame that veterans like myself get effed over so horribly as in my case I wasn’t granted service related benefits until days before my 65th birthday.
The veterans administration doesn’t care they just show up at work give the veteran the typical smile in a lie and collect their paycheck nothing more.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to publish this information. As a Viet Nam era veteran I served in the USAF in a support capacity. I lost classmate, cousins and friends to the war effort and I’m proud of the time they served and I personally welcome them home with the honor due them.
Thanks!
Gary Randall
Vietnam veteran
USAF Pararescue
1970-1974
How can I order a coin?
Hi Dave. I was also there . Tkx for your service, welcome home. BROTHER. GO TO VET.FRIENDS.COM FORCOINS,ETC.
How can we order a coin?
What about the 4,000 vets that had four legs that were never able to come home after serving their paws on the ground tour and were either left behind or given a little go to sleep shot thanks when no more needed.
I was drafted and served a tour in Vietnam in 1969. My return from Vietnam was very unusual. I had suffered combat injuries and I had a cast on my left leg from my foot to my hip.
My welcome at the was not there. I was greeted with boos and called “baby killer”.
This stuck in my mind and will be there forever. In spite of my negative experience at the airport, I would serve my country again if called to duty.
I served all of “68” in I Corp Bro, now were just a couple of
old farts. The VA don’t care, FTA…Hope you’re gettin disability.
Have a Great Life and enjoy them GrandKids!
God Bless Art Adair for saying exactly what I wanted to say, after reading this story, and a few identical stories on my local news. I don’t know who decided to begin the re-write of history, but it’s worse than inaccurate, it’s shamefull. Shamefull to me (2 tours) and shamefull to my late brother (1 tour). I am grateful for one thing though. I appreciate the PACT ACT and it’s intentions of providing long overdue medical treatment to an old man whose body is full of dioxin. Now if the VA can please hurry up the process that’s been in motion for 7 months, I’d appreciate it.
If by all accounts 2,500,000- 3 million military passed through Vietnam during the war how could there possibly 7,000,000 vets left as your article states?
This space required 10 charachters. My original post was just:
At Last.
Thanks for your thankfulness!
I never served. But many in my family have. As a citizen that benefits from the sacrifices of our service members, I am appalled. I’ve witnessed with my own eyes the homeless veterans, the mentally broken ones, the drug addicted, and the physically challenged as well. The VA releases an article that is clearly not fact checked. I know that it’s a minor screw up. It’s time that the VA is torn down and re-built! It’s time that our Government starts to look out for out Vets in a much better way! I could write a book that rants on how our Government has failed our vets!! Thanks to ALL the vets that have served and to those who currently serve!! Realize that many of us think about you everyday!!!
I don’t remember much, I will remember how I used drugs when coming home to a family and the idea of honor was joining in the drug seen, just wanting to fit.
I don’t know what was the biggest mistake the war or the war on drugs. How I see myself I lost everything I decided to lose myself and being proud of being a Marine was silenced everything representing me as a Marine was never mentioned even to this day.
War is not exceptable these men come home to be honored with great loss and pain. I can’t except the idea we failed. We have so much pain we can’t help, winning the WAR needs to start at home.
I will never be heard I can talk everyone and no one can do anything. I live in a RV on a military base for training.
I think of the war at home….
The empty building on the base, places to house the Veterans on the streets, buildings empty places to win the war at home, in battle with Veterans killing themselves each hour, the war we prepare to be ready for to protect and serve is losing in preparation for war. When without firing a single shot just in a hour is the war of wars suicide I can’t live with myself.
Just think that does not include over dosing on drugs also a way of killing yourself, drinking another way and so much more.
So with frustration and pain ? wanting to end the war. Or protect this country we have been blind or choice to close are eyes and ears.
Nothing I say or do will change the real War at Home.
It’s the Vietnam Veteran who might just understand….
What a joke! I went to my local American legion and nobody knew anything sbout it. Why even have such a day!
I agree, What a joke! FTA what a waste of time , effort and $$ MONEY $$
Freaking Lifers…..
I was trying to remember how to dig a latrine but I just can’t seem to put my finger on it. It must be the PTSD. I wonder if former President Donald Trump would honor me today. Now there is one guy who belongs in a latrine. I believe he evaded the draft during the Vietnam war but people still want the guy to be President again after all the crap he has pulled the past six years. I hope my fellow Vietnam Veterans who fought and swore to protect this country don’t vote or support this Draft-dodging lying SOB. IT would be a disgrace to all those who died especially those whom I tried to save as a medic in Vietnam.
Our current president also dodged the draft. He was 4F for asthma but healthy enough to play football.
Fifty something years to late and it wasn’t a conflict it was a War. That’s why we are called the forgotten generation. Many of us Combat Veterans are still being denied agent orange exposure. Shameful!!!
I would like to thank John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Jonson, Bob McNamara, William Westmoreland, and Jane Fonda for their contribution to my required time as a combat infantry grunt. I just can’t begin to tell how much I appreciated the entire experience from beginning to end of the two-year sentence that entirely screwed up my life. From a junior in college to becoming a killer. To you and many others responsible for this mess, thanks a diaper-full. You just had to have this war and then you gave up and you walked away. Sick.
To those that answered the call when their country asked, your are honorably remembered as are your family members who sacrificed. Dad did two tours (Army), ’66-’67 and ’69-’70; sister-in-law’s father, A-6C Intruder pilot KIA ’71.
All gave some. Some Gave All. Gone, But Never Forgotten!
7 million living Vietnam veterans, are you serious? Not a minor error, the difference between the ridiculous 7 million figure and the actual 610,000 living Vietnam War veterans (source: American War Library) is a gap as big as the Grand Canyon. . And as for the 10 million who served, that is also wildly inaccurate. Aren’t VA stories edited before posting. What an embarrassment in a story supposedly honoring Vietnam veterans.
What is your problem?????? Were you there?? Or are you one of the punks who tried to get out os the draft?? Unless you did
some time in the military and served abroad, don’t critize any of the men who did.
Agree with you the numbers are idiotic and the writer should get the correct numbers and apologize
Hardly anyone knows about it
Congratulations to all who served during the Vietnam War era, and a special thanks to those who actually had boots on the ground during the conflict. This is a day to remember that “…..All Gave Some, and Some Gave All”.
Looking for a Vietnam soldier name of Michael Montgomery known by name of Mick. He may be a needed voice to see a US civilian working there then in the Saigon area receives an award.
from the statistics site
Hardly 7 million
…………………….
2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam ( I January 1965 – 28 March 1973).
Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964
Of the 2.6 million, between 1 and 1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close combat support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
I am a Vietnam Vet on paper, joined October 74. Served until April 78, deployedApril 75 for the fall of Saigon, we were medical clearing company set up on beaches on Quam. We triaged Vietnamese refugees (boat people ) for a couple months until rainy season. I extended then discharged using GI bill to continue my nursing career. I worked for the VA for over 20 yrs and worked with veterans from WW1-Vietnam and then Iran, Iraq Afghanistan . Retired now still consider myself Vietnam ara veteran. Still love my country, thank you
I was an 18 year old Army Medic with 9th Infantry Division, Mekong Delta. The single positive of the experience was the realization that I had brothers of all colors from the great melting pot of America. Never Forget those who died young… Respect to all.
I wasn’t there physically, however I was present in spirit. I was close to going and thank God my number wasn’t called. I know from cousins and friends who served there, were injured there, and died there it was horrific. I thank each and everyone who served in Nam and know that you’ve always had my support and prayers. God bless you and thank you!
PV2 Michael David Fuller –
Date of Death 12/27/67
South Vietnam, Phu Yen province 173rd Airborne Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, A Company.
CW4 Jack Eugene Fuller –
Date of Death 08/08/2022
Served 36 years, 3 tours in Vietnam flying Reconnaissance Missions after our brother Michael David Fuller was killed in action.
Beloved Brothers, May both of your memories be Eternal
Those of us returning from Viet Nam in 1972 were subjected to some pretty ugly behavior on our return. Fortunately I was more focused on getting home to loved ones than retaliation at the time. In hindsight from where I was less than a week earlier, that probably saved me from some legal problems in California in defending myself. It still is in my memory but I think we made a difference at home in how the American public treats its returning Veterans in later times, ie. Enduring Freedom and other conflicts to today’s world looking after America’s interests.