CAVE CREEK – America’s appreciation of its military veterans hasn’t always been as public as it is today. Veterans returning from Vietnam weren’t hosted as heroes or honored with parades. Strangers didn’t thank them for their service.
On Tuesday, National Vietnam War Veterans Day, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona honored these veterans with a private wreath-laying ceremony.
Randy Heard, director of the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, compared his homecoming from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm with how Vietnam veterans came home.
“We came home to marching bands and cheering crowds,” Heard said. “I have lots of friends and family members that are Vietnam veterans that tell a much different story.”
The U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1954 to 1973 was bitterly divisive, and 58,220 U.S. troops died in the war, according to federal archives. Uncounted others suffered lifelong trauma from their service in Southeast Asia.
Although Vietnam veterans didn’t get the welcome home they deserved, Heard said, “it’s never too late to pay tribute to them and give them honor.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day, and in 2017, President Donald Trump made it a recurring national holiday.
March 29, 1973, was the day the last U.S. troops departed from South Vietnam.