The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Chapter #1056 will be conducting their annual Vietnam War Veterans Day Ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday, March 24, at Three Rivers College in the Plaster Free Enterprise Center, Room 108.
March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. This is a time to pay special tribute to the nine million Americans who served during the Vietnam War era, to the 58,200 names memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and to those who never received the recognition they deserved when they returned to America from war.
The date was chosen because it marked the end of the Vietnam conflict. Fifty years ago on March 29, 1973, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam was disestablished and the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. In addition, the U.S. Vietnam War Commemoration stated that Hanoi released the last of its acknowledged prisoners of war around this time.
Ret. Lt. Cmdr. Larry Kimbrow, the president of the local VVA Chapter #1056 and the emcee of this year’s ceremony announced that Ret. Col. Douglas C. Rose, Jr. will be this year’s keynote speaker. He also announced there will be a special POW/MIA Ceremony in honor of the more than 1,500 servicemembers who did not return after the war, as well as a Bell Ringing Ceremony to recognize all of the servicemen from Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas who died in Vietnam.
Two local servicemen, Col. James Metz, USAF (former POW/MIA) who died while in captivity and Ricardo Rios, an Army veteran from the Doniphan area, will be specifically recognized for their valorous actions in Vietnam.
There will also be live patriotic music followed by the playing of Taps by a member of the SEMO Honor Guard.
The one-hour event is free and open to the public.
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