Veterans
DC ceremony marks National Vietnam War Veterans Day
Special to Stars and Stripes
March 29, 2024
A wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Since 2017, March 29 has been designated as National Vietnam War Veterans Day, and dozens of veterans, active-duty service members and other visitors to the nation’s capital marked the occasion Friday with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.
Soldiers from the Military District of Washington prepare the colors for a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
A tribute left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Maj. Gen. Edward J. Chrystal Jr., director of the Vietnam War Commemoration program, speaks at a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
A U.S. Navy wreath awaits a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
March 29 was selected because on that date in 1973, the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was disestablished and the last American troops left for home.
The event was part of an ongoing 50th anniversary commemoration of the war that began on Memorial Day 2012 and will run through Veterans Day next year. Opening remarks at Friday’s event were delivered by Maj. Gen. Edward J. Chrystal Jr., director of the commemoration effort.
Rick Holland, whose father, Tech Sgt. Melvin Holland, remains unaccounted for decades after a March 11, 1968 North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Navigation system facility in Laos, is overcome with emotion after a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony Friday in Washington. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Vietnam veteran Philip Todd, from Arizona, takes a photo of the Three Soldiers statue at the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Attendees bow for the invocation at a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Bagpipers play during a National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
In addition to several Vietnam veterans, several of whom came in from Arizona, participants included Rick Holland, representing POW/MIA families. Holland’s father, Tech Sgt. Melvin Holland, is still listed as unaccounted for in the wake of a March 11, 1968 attack on an Air Force Tactical Air Navigation system site in Houaphan Province, Laos.
Jan Scruggs, retired head of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the driving force behind the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, explains details about the Wall to his Coast Guard escort, Seaman Tommy Howard, during a National Vietnam War Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Participants in a wreath-laying ceremony arrive at the Vietnam Wall on National Vietnam War Veterans Day in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)
Vietnam veteran Michael Overmeyer and his active-duty escort stand during a wreath-laying ceremony on National Vietnam War Veterans Day in Washington, D.C., March 29, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)