For Our Veterans, and All Americans, Tomorrow, March 29, is National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This day has been around since 2012. I searched on ‘Vietnam’ in thread titles, and there are zero threads about this out of 238 Vietnam threads.

Since 2017 this is an annual National Day here in the US.

Brief Hx, reverse chron (note, hx = history; according to Wikipedia)
►2017-03-28: President Trump signs the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act, for 29 March
►2012-03-29: President Obama proclaims March 29, 2012 as Vietnam Veterans Day
►1973-03-29: President Nixon; The last American combat troops leave Vietnam as per the Paris Peace Accords
►1962-03-29: President Kennedy; JCS finalizes instructions to MACV concerning “maximum discretion” and “minimum publicity” for US air operations in South Vietnam

National Vietnam War Veterans Day is a US holiday observed annually on March 29. It recognizes veterans who served in the US military during the Vietnam War.
►Ref: National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikipedia
►Retrieved 2020-03-28T0845U

Hx, more details
1962-03-29: President Kennedy — The Joints Chiefs of Staff finalized instructions to MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) concerning “maximum discretion” and “minimum publicity” for U.S. air operations in South Vietnam. If an enemy aircraft was shot down, MACV was instructed to remain silent unless it became necessary to contradict communist propaganda in which case MACV was to say that while on a routine training flight, an unidentified airplane initiated hostile action and was shot down. If a U.S. airplane was lost, MACV was instructed to say that the aircraft was on a routine orientation flight and the cause of the accident is being investigated. MACV was further instructed to ensure that all knowledgeable personnel were “instructed and rehearsed” with these rules.
►Ref: 1962 in the Vietnam War - Wikipedia
►Retrieved 2020-03-28T0907U

1973-03-29: President Nixon
The last American combat troops left Vietnam as per the Paris Peace Accords. The U.S. military command in South Vietnam, MACV ceased to exist. Fewer than 250 U.S. military personnel remained in Vietnam assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon for advisory duties plus a few marines for protection of the Embassy. About 8,500 civilians working for the U.S. government remained in South Vietnam.
An official publication of North Vietnam summed up the pluses and minuses of the peace agreement. On the positive side for North Vietnam, the U.S. had ended its military operations in both South and North Vietnam and had begun to remove mines from coastal waters of North Vietnam. On the negative side, the cease fire had not been effective, although combat was not as intensive as before, and the U.S. continued to support South Vietnam by turning over its military bases and providing weapons and other military material to South Vietnam.
►Ref: 1973 in the Vietnam War - Wikipedia
►Retrieved 2020-03-28T0918U

2012-03-29: President Obama
On March 29, 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 29, 2012, as Vietnam Veterans Day. The proclamation called “upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Vietnam War.”
►Ref: National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikipedia
►Retrieved 2020-03-28T0845U

2017-03-29: President Trump
On December 26, 2016, the Vietnam Veterans Day Coalition of States Council presented a letter to President Elect Donald Trump and Congressional leadership outlining the history and timeline of cause to establish March 29 as Vietnam War Veterans Day and requesting that it be one of the first legislations passed and signed into law during the 115 Congress.
On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017. This act officially recognizes March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The Act also includes the day among those days on which the US flag should especially be displayed.
►Ref: National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikipedia
►Retrieved 2020-03-28T0845U
For our veterans, specifically for those who served in the Vietnam War, I salute you. Especially if you were drafted. Welcome home.

(I was too young. My service, USMC, started in 1980. I enlisted; wasn’t drafted.)

2

Any love for Vietnam vets?

3

You’re welcome.

4

I served a McNamara tour in I-Corps from 1968-1969 as a member of a Seabee detachment on a Marine Corps base at Red Beach, north of Da Nang. Hated every second of it.

Returned home to indifference, if not hostility. Moved on, never looked back.

I don’t belong to any online groups, nor to any organizations.

I don’t sit in bars and piss and moan about the damn gubmint.

I don’t wear a Vietnam Vet hat, nor any pieces of the uniform.

The only blessing from that mess is that I never had to kill anyone, was never shot or injured, nor do I have any serious PTSD effects from it. I also never saw any friends bleeding to death or dismembered, although I saw several of them wounded. They all survived.

I’ve been to the Vietnam Memorial. It’s a total gut punch.

A day of recognition is meaningless to me. That episode in my life was over 50 years ago, after all.

5

Okay. Understood.

6

Sorry; I shouldn’t post when I’m in a pissy mood.

7

No problem, you’re allowed. We’re all allowed to be in a pissy mood. No problem, don’t worry about it.

8

well, for the most part, its still a war no one really wants to talk about even in this pro armed forces era that and more than a few Vietnam era vets attitude is “where the hell was all this when we came home?”

9

Kinda my view, as well. It took 40 years for a President to finally officially acknowledge those who fought. Better late than never, I guess, but way too late for a lot of us. Near the end of my career, I even had one of my younger guys look at my ribbons and laugh and say “Oh, right, Vietnam; that’s the one we lost, right?” It didn’t go well after that.

10

I see that you don’t identify much with your Vietnam Vet status and that’s quite understandable, but for some guys whose lives were drastically altered I think it’s hard for them to let go of that identity.

When I was in the Army I lived next door to a guy that was an infantry marine who did two tours in Vietnam and lost his leg and had Purple Hearts and such. It was a big part of his identity even though he still progressed after the war and became an accountant, it’s not like he just stagnated.

I don’t really have a point I’m just rambling. I used to love and sit with the guy though and drink a few beers and listen to him talk about it.

11

A lot of men and women who saw the real horror of war were permanently damaged. Treatment for PTSD was non-existent and they were supposed to just deal with it on their own. A lot of people succumbed to addiction and depression and suicide. I take nothing away from those poor folks and their anguish. It’s a damn shame that it took so long for the government to step up. But it’s pointless for me to dwell on all of that, as it serves no one; I was pretty much able to move on from it all, and want to keep it that way.