The News Tribune
By ADAM ASHTON
October 10, 2014
More than 2,500 veterans or families of veterans crowded the parade field at JBLM to participate in the salute.
Command Sgt. Major Erik Frey awards commemorative pins to Auburn VFW Vietnam-era veterans John Pepper (left), Bob Newman, and Joe Audino during a ceremony at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. It part of the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Vietnam War.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — Stephen Stribling looked wide-eyed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Thursday as he walked into a column of uniformed sailors waiting to thank him for his service in the Vietnam War.
The 66-year-old grinned as he took in the appreciation of active-duty troops. It was nothing like the lonely homecoming he experienced at the end of his combat tour in 1968.
"I'm like a baby to something like this. It's so unreal," he said.
Stribling's new Vietnam homecoming — 46 years in the making — unfolded at a JBLM salute to Vietnam-era veterans. It was meant to recognize a generation of military service members who too often felt scorned by the public after serving overseas.
"It is never too late, never too late, to pay tribute to the men and women who served and continue to serve our country," said I Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, the senior Army officer at JBLM.
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