Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Medal of Honor recipient Michael Novosel

Medal of Honor recipient Michael Novosel saved more than 5,000 in Vietnam ― including his son
Vietnam Magazine
By: Doug Sterner
March 30, 2018
A month before the father was to return home, the son’s helicopter came under fire, and Novosel Jr. made an emergency landing. Novosel Sr., with wounded aboard his helicopter, dropped down to pick up his son and the grounded dustoff crew. One week later, Novosel Sr. and his helicopter were grounded. He recognized the pilot coming to the rescue him—it was his son. “I’ll never hear the last of this,” Novosel recalled saying.

“Dustoff.” In 1963 that was the call sign for helicopter pilots who pioneered emergency medical evacuations during the Vietnam War. About 3,000 pilots and crewmen flew unarmed air ambulances, often into heavy fire, to medevac more than 100,000 severely wounded men, and 33 percent became casualties themselves.

Michael “Mike” J. Novosel, a native of Etna, Pennsylvania, took a circuitous route to the cockpit of a UH-1H Huey medevac copter. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps (a predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) in February 1941 to become a pilot but was a quarter-inch shy of the 5-foot, 4-inch requirement for the aviation cadet program and found himself in a pay clerk’s job.

In his 1999 Dustoff: The Memoir of an Army Aviator, Novosel recounted his effort to beat the height requirement. He had read that people are tallest in the morning before they stand and the body compresses, so on the day of the measurement Novosel’s buddies transported him to the medical facility on a makeshift stretcher. He still came up short, but a compassionate medical officer “stretched” his height on paper.

After earning his wings in December 1942, Novosel became a B-24 pilot training aerial gunners in World War II. He placed a pillow behind him in the pilot seat so his feet could reach the rudder pedals. He later flew B-29s on four combat missions in the Pacific. During the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945, he was one of 500 pilots to fly in formation over Tokyo Bay.
read more here

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Lessons from WMHT’s multimedia ‘Vietnam in a Word’

‘We are the carriers’: Lessons from WMHT’s multimedia ‘Vietnam in a Word’

Current
Ian Fox
January 3, 2018

WMHT’s project “Vietnam in a Word” caught my eye with its simple concept and its even more elegant execution: a multimedia and community-driven oral history project, realized as an attractive digital hub for all of the station’s programming related to The Vietnam War, the documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

WMHT staffers interview a Vietnam veteran at the Gateway Diner in Albany.

ALBANY, N.Y. — The offices of joint licensee WMHT would blend into its business-park surroundings if not for a protruding broadcast tower throwing its light into the November afternoon sun. Situated between the rowhouse-lined town square of Troy, N.Y., and Albany’s legislator-laden diners, the station’s innocuous digs — like those of many public media stations — don’t scream “community center.”

Yet WMHT’s exceptional work in its community is exactly why I was in the station’s parking lot on a biting cold day, a mile from the main road and 175 miles from my Boston home. It’s the first of what’ll be many station visits across the country for this series, In Public, in which I’ll explore the operations of innovative community engagement projects across public media.
*******
The word I'd pick is "mind-boggling." The first time I heard a group of veterans talking about it, that was the term that struck me the most. They were still trying to figure it out.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Family of "Mayaguez Marine" Left Behind Found

UPDATE: Vietnam veteran searches for fallen soldier's family

The News Center
WTAP
Sheena Steffen
UPDATE: December 23, 2017
In between our shows, the family of Danny contacted us and explained how shocked they were about learning a veteran was searching for their brother.

Danny's family is now scattered between Marietta and Williamstown and has brothers in Parkersburg and New York City. They also have hopes in contacting Dan shortly.
A veteran who fought in what is known as the last battle of the Vietnam War continues to seek for a fallen soldier’s family.
After many years of research, Vietnam veteran Dan Fields discovered a marine from Waverly West Virginia was left behind in the Mayaguez recovery back in 1975.
According to Fields, Private Danny Marshall was one of the three marines left behind during an evacuation and never returned home. He states that for almost 20 years the Military denied anyone was left behind, but eventually those who were the last to interact with the three marines came forward and shared their experiences.
Fields, being a native to West Virginia and personally involved in the Mayaguez recovery, felt that he should reach out to the fallen soldier’s family.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Navy Veteran Wins Claim for Parkinson's Tied to Agent Orange...In New Zealand

Navy veteran who won compensation battle after linking his Parkinson's to chemical exposure speaks out for first time

NZ Herald
Kurt Bayer
December 5, 2017 (New Zealand)

A New Zealand navy veteran who won a compensation battle after successfully linking his Parkinson's disease to chemical exposure in the 1960s has spoken out for the first time about the fumes he likened to solvent abuse.

A Navy veteran has spoken out for the first time about the chemical exposure he experienced during his service. Photo / File
He says despite suffering neurological pain in the 1970s after working with toxic chemicals on assignment both here and overseas, he was told to "get on with it" and that it was all in his head.
In a potentially-landmark case, Veterans Affairs' has provided the ex-serviceman, who wants to remain anonymous, with an entitlement to disability compensation for Parkinson's, a condition attributed to his operational service on a Royal New Zealand Navy ship during the 1948-1960 Malayan Emergency.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Vietnam MIA Family Received Dog Tags and Closure

Sons receive missing dad’s Vietnam War dog tags
Florida Today
Rick Neale
November 25, 2017

Shortly after rescuing a downed American pilot behind enemy lines, Air Force Capt. Richard “Dick” Kibbey’s first daring mission of the Vietnam War proved to be his last — haunting his grieving family for the next half-century.

North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire raked the fuselage of Kibbey’s HH-3E helicopter, which burst into flames on Feb. 6, 1967. The doomed “Jolly Green Giant” slammed into a sheer limestone cliff near the mountainous Mu Ghia Pass on the Laos-North Vietnam border.

Kibbey was listed as missing in action after the crash. His wife, Mary Ann, moved that summer from Vero Beach to North Wherry Housing on Patrick Air Force Base for emotional support, and their four children went on to graduate from Satellite High.

The children say their mother died in 1979 of a broken heart, wondering whether her husband was alive.
read more here

Sunday, October 1, 2017

USS Kirk Crew Honored for Rescues After Vietnam War

Vietnam Veterans Recognized for Rescuing More Than 30,000 Refugees
NBC 4 News
Brie Stimson
Liberty Zabala
October 1, 2017

"If I wasn’t there, if the Navy chose not to send me, they would have been all killed…there’s no question in my mind,” Vietnam veteran CAPT Paul Jacobs told NBC 7.
Jacobs and the crew of the USS Kirk received two congressional commendations from the U.S. government at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park this weekend for their role in leading the effort to save more than 30,000 Vietnamese veterans near the end of the war.

Saturday was the first time the crew had been recognized formally by the U.S. government. The ceremony included dignitaries and congressional, county and city officials.

On April 30, 1975, Jacobs was told to return to the coast to rescue what was left of the South Vietnamese Navy.
read more here

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Vietnam Veterans Film "The Lost Homecoming"

‘They were fighting in something the public didn’t support.’ Filmmakers hope documentary gives them a voice

Sun Herald
Tammy Smith
September 17, 2017

In “The Lost Homecoming,” about 45 Vietnam War veterans, many of them from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, talk about their experiences both in country and when they returned to the States. Dawley, who lives in Diamondhead, produced and codirected the one-hour program, and Lenny Delbert of New Orleans is co-director and the filmmaker.

‘The Lost Homecoming: When Our Vietnam Veterans Came Home’ will air on WYES on Sunday night at 10 p.m. Courtesy WYES/Pan Am Communications
As a Veterans Administration psychologist, Harold Dawley heard many stories of war experiences and the aftermath of service.
But one story haunted him for four decades. He finally has been able to use one young man’s painful struggle to tell the story of a generation that felt torn apart.
“The Lost Homecoming: When Our Vietnam Veterans Came Home,” will be aired on New Orleans PBS station WYES at 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept, 17, about a half hour after the first episode of Ken Burns’s documentary series “The Vietnam War” airs. 

“They were fighting in something the public didn’t support, and so they really felt defeated,” Dawley said. 
The story that stayed with him was that of a young African American man from a small Mississippi town. 
“His best friend in Vietnam was a young white man, and he was killed right beside him,” Dawley said. “The thing that carried him through his time in service was the thought of his homecoming. He made sergeant. When he was headed home, he was looking outside the window of the bus and thinking about what people would say.” 
When the bus stopped in his hometown, the white man who owned the service station there looked at him, finally recognized him and said, “Well, boy, I see you made it back OK.” 
“He didn’t know that was going to be all the homecoming he was going to get,” Dawley said. The rejection the young man felt affected several aspects of his life. He became a drug addict, and his marriage fell apart.
read more here 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Repeating Facebook Non-Facts Makes You Look Stupid

Mark Twain wrote, "There are lies, damned lies and statistics." I wonder what he'd say about Facebook?


There are facts we talk about all the time and they are backed up to other sources. We know the truth but then find ourselves in a altered world where non-facts get all the attention. Then they keep wondering why nothing changes. 

We wonder when they'll get a clue so maybe they'll help find the best thing to do to actually make a difference in this world.

I gave up on them hearing us since we're "old" but there is much to be said about what comes with age. We have the wisdom to know the difference between what is truth and what is not.

Here's a start on what they are getting wrong and it spreads wide all the way up to POTUS who has been saying that we've been at war for 17 years in Afghanistan. 

FACT
NUMBER OF YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN
It has been almost 16 years of war in Afghanistan and not 17.

On September 11, 2001, we were attacked. In October of 2001, troops were sent to Afghanistan in response to it as War on Terror was declared by President Bush.

FACT
Rate of PTSD in Veterans
  • Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.
  • Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.
  • Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.
FACT
DEADLIEST YEAR 
Deadliest Year in Vietnam Claimed the lives of more troops than all years of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. 
1968

Bloodiest year of the war ends

The bloodiest year of the war comes to an end. At year’s end, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967.
Estimates from Headquarters U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam indicated that 181,150 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were killed during the year. However, Allied losses were also up: 27,915 South Vietnamese,
14,584 Americans (a 56 percent increase over 1967), and 979 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Thais were reported killed during 1968. Since January 1961, more than 31,000 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Vietnam and over 200,000 U.S. personnel had been wounded.
According to ICasualties.org 2,403 US servicemembers lost their lives in Afghanistan, 4,523 lost their lives in Iraq since 2001.



FACT
LONGEST WAR
Afghanistan is not the longest war in US history. That would be Vietnam, however it depends on who is doing the counting. Reporters using chosen dates, or families using family members who lost their lives.

Vietnam War
1945 First American soldier killed in VietnamLt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall has,  The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956.  


And Last,  The last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Kelton Rena Turner, an 18-year old Marine. He was killed in action on May 15, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the Mayaguez incident.Others list Gary L. Hall, Joseph N. Hargrove and Danny G. Marshall as the last to die in Vietnam. These three US Marines Corps veterans were mistakenly left behind on Koh Tang Island during the Mayaguez incident. They were last seen together but unfortunately to date, their fate is unknown. They are located on panel 1W, lines 130 - 131.

FACT
VA Suicide Report
It is not now, nor has it been "22 a day" or "20 a day" as the definitive number of veterans across the country committing suicide.

First study of Veterans committing suicide in 2012,  reported with the number of "22 a day" was from just 21 states using limited data taken from death certificates that indicated military service.

The follow up study released in 2016 used more data from more states as well as from the CDC. The fact is, not all states have military service on their death certificates. States like California and Illinois would not have been able to supply accurate data.

FACT
Suicide
Military suicide numbers are not in the numbers of veterans committing suicide. They are separated.

For charities out there refusing to help any veteran other than OEF and OIF, majority of veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50. (see above report link)
There is continued evidence of a high burden of suicide among middle-aged and older Veterans. In 2014, about 65 percent of all Veterans who died by suicide were age 50 or older. 
If you are among the Facebook users thinking you are doing some good sharing what you think are facts, please remember to check to see if you are sharing a "non fact" because people like me are all over the country sharing the real facts.
 

Monday, July 31, 2017

Vietnam War Donut Dollie Remembered

Brookfield honors Vietnam War Donut Dollie who never came home


State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after Ginny Kirsch, who died in Vietnam in 1970 while serving as a Donut Dollie 
WKBN News Ohio
By Tyler Trill 
Published: July 30, 2017

BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after a local Donut Dollie on Sunday who never made it home from the Vietnam War.
During the war, the American Red Cross sent groups of women overseas called Donut Dollies. They would serve coffee and doughnuts, as well as participate in other programs, to boost the morale of the soldiers.
Brookfield High School graduate Ginny Kirsch was a Dollie in 1970 — and she was honored Sunday.
“It means the world to the Kirsch family to have all of you here today,” Ginny’s sister Ann Kirsch-Keag said.
The Kirsch family and dozens of people recited what they call Ginny’s Prayer on Brookfield’s center green.
Four of Ginny sisters shared stories of the Vietnam veteran.


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Wall That Heals Arrived In Wisconsin

'The Wall that Heals'


Vietnam veteran Bob Rich, of Superior, salutes as the Halvor Lines trucks carrying the "The Wall that Heals," a 250-foot replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as it rolls down East Second Street in Superior on Wednesday morning.
“I lost a lot of friends over there,” Rich said when talking about serving from 1963-68.
go here for more pictures

Monday, July 10, 2017

Vietnam Memorial "We wanted to do something more."

Funding secured for Vietnam memorial sculpture
Times Record News
Lana Sweeten-Shults
July 9, 2017

The Major Francis Grice Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution always has honored the country's servicemen and servicewomen.
"We as a group have honored Vietnam veterans, usually with a luncheon, but that wasn't honoring all of them," said Shirley King, an artist and a member of the organization. "We wanted to do something more."'

Two years ago, the group's then-regent, Ruth James, came up with the idea of commissioning a statue, King said, to honor all Vietnam veterans.

"Her husband was a Vietnam veteran."

And so started the DAR chapter's efforts to have such a monument built — a project that reached an important milestone recently.

The group announced it has raised the $170,000 needed to fund the artwork and landscaping around it. The memorial will be an 11-feet-tall bronze sculpture by Lubbock artist Garland Weeks, a Wichita Falls High School graduate who isn't new to the city's public arts landscape. Another of his works, "Vision of the Future," stands on the grounds of the Kemp Center for the Arts.
read more here

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Idaho Vietnam Veteran Searching for Orphan He Saved in 1970

Vietnam War veteran searches for orphan he rescued in 1970


ADVANCE FOR USE SATURDAY, JULY 1 - In this June 22, 2017 photo, Robert Martin holds a picture of himself at his home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, holding 2-month-old Roberta Sunday after finding her in a bunker in Vietnam. 

- Associated Press - Saturday, July 1, 2017

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) - Robert Martin’s platoon was sent to check out an enemy bunker complex that had been hit with heavy airstrikes. He heard a coughing sound.
“In this one bunker I found three dead Vietnamese - two men and one woman,” the Coeur d’Alene man said softly. “I turned to go to the next bunker when I heard a cough from under the dead bodies.”
Under the woman’s body was a naked infant girl - perhaps 2 months old - who was shivering and had shrapnel in one of her thighs.
Martin wrapped the girl in an empty sand bag and carried her to the pickup zone.
After Martin informed his commanders via radio of the situation, his chopper was diverted to the Quang Tri Catholic Hospital, where the baby could be treated.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

“Protectors of Freedom,” Memorial from WWI to War on Terror

Toms River unveils elaborate monument to veterans
Asbury Park Press
Erik Larsen
Published June 26, 2017
“Over 16 million U.S. service members — 560,000 from New Jersey — answered the call to unconditionally defeat two of the most militarily powerful, hate-filled, racist and fanatical dictatorships the world has ever known,” Smith said.
TOMS RIVER - One hundred years to the day that the first U.S. troops arrived in France after America entered World War I, a monument was dedicated in town Monday honoring a century of service by the men and women who have served in uniform on behalf of the nation.
“Protectors of Freedom,” by local sculptor Brian Hanlon and funded through The Jay and Linda Grunin Foundation, features six service members representing conflicts from World War I to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Located in Bey Lea Park, the five statues (one includes two figures) depict a World War I “doughboy;” a poncho-clad soldier from the Korean War calling for support on a radio; a wounded World War II soldier being carried from the battlefield by his 21st century counterpart; and a Vietnam War infantryman escorting an Army nurse through hostile territory. Watch the video above to take a tour of the memorial.
read more here

Sunday, June 25, 2017

CIA Honored "Smokejumpers"

They were smokejumpers when the CIA sent them to Laos; they came back in caskets
The Washington Post
By IAN SHAPIRA
Published: June 25, 2017
Leary, the University of Georgia history professor and Air America expert, wrote the CIA a letter urging the agency to give the three men Memorial Wall recognition as far back as 1993.
Their families didn't know they were in Laos, and didn't know that they'd started working for the CIA in addition to their jobs with the U.S. Forest Service.
The CIA Memorial Wall uses stars to honor those killed in the line of duty.
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
They were young firefighters-turned-CIA operatives working thousands of miles from home in a remote corner of Southeast Asia. David W. Bevan, Darrell A. Eubanks and John S. Lewis, all in their mid-20s, were on a mission to drop supplies for anti-Communist forces in what was then known as the Kingdom of Laos. But on Aug. 13, 1961, the CIA-operated Air America plane carrying the men tried turning out of a mountaintop bowl near the Laotian capital of Vientiane and one of its wings hooked into a ridge.

The C-46 "cartwheeled into little pieces," according to the book, "Smokejumpers and the CIA," published by the National Smokejumpers Association. The CIA operatives died, along with Air America's two pilots.

When their families were told they'd been killed in Laos in a plane crash, they were stunned.
read more here

Monday, June 19, 2017

Hundreds Ride to Escort Vietnam Memorial Wall in Michigan

Motorcyclists escort Vietnam Memorial Wall replica to honor veterans
Up North Live
by NEWSROOM
June 19th 2017
"We have a lot of things to overcome, but to me, this is one sign of brotherhood camaraderie coming together to support."
Richard Quinlan
MANISTEE COUNTY, Mich. (WPBN/WGTU)-- Hundreds of motorcyclists rode in honor of our Vietnam veterans on Friday. It was the eighth annual Vietnam War Memorial Escort.

Richard Quinlan is a Vietnam war veteran. He says when he served, he was just doing what needed to be done. "Somebody has to stand up for what America believes in, and at that time, we were the ones that had to stand up," said Quinlan. 

Fred Nelson, also a Vietnam war veteran, now works with the group Rolling Thunder, an organization dedicated to helping veterans with events such as the wall escort.
read more here

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby No Longer MIA

Long-missing Vietnam veteran returns to San Diego
FOX 5 San Diego
BY SHARON CHEN
MAY 26, 2017
It wasn’t until 2015, during the fourth recovery mission, that crews ran into the villager that witnessed Crosby's crash 50 years ago. He led them to the exact location of the wrecked F-8 Crusader plane.
SAN DIEGO – The saga of a San Diego Navy pilot missing in action for 50 years came to a close Friday morning as the remains of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby returned home.

The Naval commander's flag-draped coffin arrived at Lindbergh Field from Hawaii just after noon.

As his children, all now in late middle age, watched, their emotions flowed.

“It’s nice to be able to let out the tears and to have some relief in our hearts,” said Deborah Crosby.

Crosby had four children. Deborah is his only daughter.
read more here

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Hey Cong Tien Gunner--Marine Joe Elizondo is Looking For You!

Vietnam veteran continues search for man who saved his life
KRIS TV
By Jane Caffrey
May 26, 2017
"All I want to tell him is thank you," the former marine said with tears in his eyes. "Eight people got killed in the air. His family needs to know, that he's an angel. Can you imagine how many they saved?"
CORPUS CHRISTI - The Vietnam War claimed the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers, including 100 from Corpus Christi, and with Memorial Day approaching one local veteran feels thankful to have survived that conflict.
The former Marine was close to death in Vietnam. Decades later, his search continues for the man that saved his life. He believes he will find him in Corpus Christi.

Joe Elizondo has three purple hearts and has been honored by U.S. presidents nine times for heroic acts, but he has a hero of his own from his time in Vietnam.

Elizondo was a gun squad leader and a tunnel rat, taking on dangerous underground missions. He was stationed in Cong Tien, one of the most dangerous war zones near the demilitarized area. It was so dangerous it was dubbed "The Place of Angels."

"We had gotten in the morning 11 lieutenants. And they had just arrived from the States. And the next day, only one survived," Elizondo recalled.

One morning, the Americans were ambushed.

"I got hit by a sniper, and the bullet went right through my side of my head, and went out the other side," Elizondo said, showing where the the bullet went through his neck.
read more here

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Marine Not Good Enough to Be Buried in Veteran's Cemetery, Now Has Highway With His Name

Fallen Oklahoma Vietnam veteran finally being recognized for his sacrifice
BY KFOR-TV and K. QUERRY
APRIL 14, 2017
On Friday, a portion of I-40 by Henryetta was renamed the Anthony Grundy Memorial Highway.
HENRYETTA, Okla. - An Oklahoma community is righting a wrong that dates back to the Vietnam War.

Anthony Grundy was the only service member from Henryetta that died in the war. He was a brave Marine who signed up in 1967 and died in the Tet Offensive.

When Grundy's parents sought permission to bury their son with other veterans in the Henryetta Cemetery, they were denied.

At the time, they were told it was due to a lack of space.

"We tried in Henryetta but they said they didn't have the space," Alpheus Grundy, Anthony's brother, told NewsChannel 4 in 2016.

"I didn't cry then but I cried later," he continues.

However, everyone now acknowledges that it was because Grundy was African-American.
read more here

Friday, April 7, 2017

Edmund Sumner, Homeless Veteran Laid to Rest by Church Family

Large crowd attends homeless Knoxville veteran’s funeral
WKEN News
Lori Tucker
Published: April 6, 2017

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – A crowd turned out Wednesday at East Tennessee Veterans Cemetery to say goodbye to a man most of them had never met.
He was an Air Force veteran who died homeless with no remaining family members to plan his services, but the community stepped up.

Edmund W. Sumner was a veteran of the Air Force during the Vietnam era. He had become homeless in recent years, but on this day, he had a large family who turned out to honor his years of service.

The 61-year-old’s funeral Wednesday had full military honors. A United States flag draped his casket to honor the memory of his service to America. Sumner’s pastor was presented with the tri-folded flag as a keepsake.

While most of Sumner’s biological family is gone, he found a new spiritual family through his church.
read more here

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Vietnam Veterans Day Officially Declared Today

It’s Official: March 29th to be permanently recognized as National Vietnam War Veterans Day


WASHINGTON, D.C.– Bipartisan legislation authored by Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) permanently designating March 29th as National Vietnam War Veterans Day has been signed into law by President Trump.

The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act represents the first federal statute recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of veterans who served during the Vietnam War.

“In many cases, Vietnam veterans did not receive the warm welcome they earned when they came home,” said Sen. Toomey.