Carol and I went to the American Legion in Newport for a celebration honoring Veterans who served during the Vietnam War. While it was geared towards those that had served in Vietnam, they honored all veterans who had served during the time period November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975.
The ceremony was held in the American Legion Hall in Newport.
The Yaquina Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution hosted the event.
It was nicely done with a good turn out of Vets. There were roughly 2.6 million men who served in Vietnam during the War. During that time approximately 7,500 women, mostly nurses, served in-country.
The ceremony began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the reading of the American's Creed.
And the program, Page 1.
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After the opening, Suzanne Allen gave a presentation on her part in 'Operation Homecoming'.
She had been a teacher in the Philippines and active with the Red Cross when she was approached by the Base Commander to quietly put together a team of Red Cross volunteers for a secret mission.
She was to assemble a team of 12 volunteers who would be available around the clock for an indefinite amount of time and they couldn't tell anyone, not even their spouses, about it beforehand. Somehow she found 12 women, shown in the picture below, to commit.
They had just concluded the peace treaty with North Vietnam and they were set to release the POWs. These women would be available to help in whatever way possible as these men returned to U.S. care.
They helped with writing letters, making calls and just readjusting. It was done with as much privacy as could be had so these men could deal with the rigors of transitioning from the horrors of a POW prison cell to the freedom and notoriety of returning to America.
Each POW had been assigned a soldier to help them when they boarded the plane in Hanoi. These men wore this badge to distinguish themselves as they took care of their POW.
The POWs spend about a week at Clark AFB in the Philippines before being medically cleared to return to the States. In that time, the folks found out they were there and sent them cards and cookies. In fact, the Red Cross organized a system where around 300 home-made cookies were delivered to them every day.
While Suzanne sometimes wandered during her presentation, it was, nonetheless, interesting.
Many of the POWs wrote back to the Red Cross Ladies to thank them for their help.
Then Suzanne's grade school friend, Marcia, gave a small talk about the sole female captive held by the North Vietnamese. Marcia had been in contact with her friend, Suzanne, during the release of the POWs and talked about her perspective of being in the States and seeing the POWs released. She talked about Monica Schwinn from West Germany.
Schwinn was a member of the Maltese Aid Service and had gone to Vietnam to give medical help to persons on both sides of the conflict. There were five from her medical team taken captive. During her imprisonment she watched three of her medical comrades starve to death.
Then we were treated to a medley of patriotic songs by the Coastalaires.
It was fun and they certainly put a lot of effort into their songs. The last song they sang was "God Bless America" and at the end, they invited the audience to join them as they again sang the song.
After the certificates and pins had been presented, they got all the vets together for a group picture. Hahaha, we were a lot younger when we served.
Suzanne had brought a number of items concerning Operation Homecoming from her private collection. What a treasure chest that was.
One of the posters sent to the POWs.
Suzanne had a newspaper article done about her work with the POWs. When she brought it in to show them, they all signed it for her.
Priceless.
Another poster.
Evidently, there is a commission set up to coordinate activities to honor the 50th Anniversary Commemoration.
And they had plenty of cake on hand for the reception afterwards.
Nicely done.
And here is the certificate they awarded each Veteran.
And the pin.
And thank you, DAR, for all that you do. I personally appreciated your kind actions.
I looked around at the men with me and felt a deep admiration for them. Only about 25% of the men in country were drafted. That means for the most part the men who served there had volunteered for the service during the war.
While others were protesting, these men climbed up onto the wall to do their duty as they saw it. These guys actually put themselves in harms way for their beliefs. I looked closely at the picture of all the Veterans we took at the end. These old men were soldiers once, and young, and they risked it all for their Country.
It's kinda cool to be in the company of quiet Heroes.
The DAR gave each of us a small bag with several small items in them. Everyone got this decal. It will go into my dresser drawer.
All in all, it was a nice ceremony. I almost didn't go but I am glad I did. Those were crazy times but I am glad I did what I did.
