Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 in Durango joined others across the nation in honoring Vietnam veterans at a National Vietnam War Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony Friday in Iris Park.
The ceremony was attended by Jim Knotts, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the nonprofit organization that built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a wall that chronologically lists the names of 58,318 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Near the conclusion of the ceremony, Vietnam Army veteran Chris Meyer said Vietnam veterans are interestingly unlike other veterans in that they were not honored when they returned home from overseas.
He said The Wall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was built by veterans for veterans, in particular the men and women who died and were left behind in Vietnam.
“That’s one of the founding principles of the Vietnam Veterans of America: Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another,” he said.
Lech Usinowizz, whose father is a Vietnam Army combat veteran, said The Wall represents the struggles and sacrifices veterans faced in the Vietnam War and his heart has always been with those servicemen and servicewomen.
He said not a single day has passed that his father hasn’t thought about the men and, particularly, the women who served and who are not always recognized.
“He had his very vulnerable and broken days of being completely paralyzed by his experience out there,” he said.
Usinowizz said his father has visited the Vietnam Women's Memorial, which was established to honor 265,000 military and civilian women who served during the Vietnam War, five times.
The women who contributed to the war effort were influential but overlooked, he said.
“All these guys have been through it. I’m grateful that many of the conflicts that we face, none (are) like the war that they faced,” he said. “They were spit on, they were neglected. Even when they came back from being forced into a war they may not have supported. And not receiving the same brotherhood that we embrace when we honor anyone who serves now.”
The biggest lesson his father brought back from Vietnam was a simple but poignant one: “War is hell,” Usinowizz said.
“There is no winner in war.”
Local veteran Steve Stewart said the wreath-laying ceremony, which is performed to thank and honor Vietnam veterans, is a way to recognize the generation that made sacrifices in the Vietnam War.
He said his bout in the war was “actually pretty easy.” He was in a military transportation company responsible for getting troops and convoys where they were needed.
Vietnam Navy veteran TJ said he was stationed on an aircraft carrier during the war and he “never had to dodge a bullet.”
He was tasked with loading bombs and ammo onto aircraft.
National Vietnam War Veterans Day is a relatively new memorial day designated by the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 signed into law by former President Donald Trump.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are about 7 million living Vietnam veterans and 10 million families of veterans of the Vietnam War.
Knotts, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, was the keynote speaker at the VFW’s third Vietnam Veterans Dinner on Friday.
cburney@durangoherald.com
