GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — Local Vietnam War veterans and members of Goodfellow Air Force Base's community participated in a National Vietnam War Veterans Day commemoration at the Weyandt-Eddy Memorial Plaza Friday.
Air Force Col. Christopher Corbett, 17th Training Wing deputy commander; and Army Lt. Col. John McAllister, 344th Military Intelligence Battalion commander, were guest speakers at the event.
"We're going to honor Vietnam veterans and the surviving spouse of Vietnam veterans," Ronald "JJ" Graham, Goodfellow Heritage Committee vice president, said. "This is a Congressionally-mandated program. We've been doing this for nine years, next year's the last year, so this year, we're doing it on base. We're recognizing at least a dozen Vietnam veterans and half a dozen surviving spouses of Vietnam veterans."
National Vietnam Veterans Day is an annual national observance which began in 2012. Friday's observance commemorates the 51st anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Vietnam, which occurred on March 29, 1973.
"The cool thing about this event here is, this is an event to give a proper welcome home to all the Vietnam veterans that served during the era, whether in country or here at home - this is a way of saying 'welcome home' - because they didn't get that same recognition like younger veterans like myself got," Luis Martinez, Texas Veteran Leadership Program Veteran Referral Resource Specialist, said.
"This is also an eye-opening experience to let them know that the veterans that served before us paved the way for us - everything we have now, is because of them."