Yorktown remembers and honors Vietnam veterans

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.—Community members and local officials gathered at The Veterans Memorial Circle on March 29 — National Vietnam War Veterans Day — to honor those who served in Southeast Asia at a time when the country was divided over the justification and conduct of the war.

Assemblyman Matt Slater—currently serving as a Navy Reserve officer—noted that today's recognition for Vietnam veterans is especially important because they received little thanks during the conflict and after the US pulled out in 1973.

“Our Vietnam veterans did not receive the welcome home that they deserve,” Slater said. “And when you think about [their] young age, and the fact that they witnessed the horrors of war firsthand and then came home to an ungrateful nation, it is completely unacceptable. And so today we gather all across this state, all across this great country, to finally say, ‘Mission accomplished, welcome home, and thank you for your service.’ Because you deserve that and much more. We know that our Vietnam veterans served with distinction. They served with honor, they defended democracy, and they answered the call to our nation, and for that, we are eternally grateful.”

State Senator Pete Harckham noted the impact Vietnam generation veterans have had on all who have come after them.

“What's remarkable about this generation of veterans…is that you vowed that what happened to you would never happen to another veteran, another generation of veterans returning home from war, and you are the ones who fought for health care,” State Senator Pete Harckham told the gathering. “You are the ones who fought for housing. You are the ones who fought for mental health and PTSD treatment. You are the ones who fought to get VA facilities open. And we have all learned a great deal from all of you, and we want to say thank you. And so I am proud every year to carry the Vietnam Veterans Day resolution on the floor of the Senate.”

Supervisor Ed Lachterman called the treatment veterans returning from Vietnam received “one of the most shameful experiences in our country.”

Lachterman recalled the stories he heard on an honor flight of how veterans were abused, called racial slurs, and spit at just for having served their country and noted that it took until 2017 for the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act designating March 29 Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day to be signed into law.

“We pay tribute to more than 3 million servicemen and women who left their families to serve bravely, far from everything they know and everyone they love,” Lachterman said at the podium. “They pushed through jungles and rice paddies, heat and monsoons, fighting heroically to protect the ideals we hold dear as Americans.”