Nearly 60 veterans from across central Missouri were honored and received commemorative pins on Oct. 10 in recognition of their service to the nation during the Vietnam War era. The ceremony at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory was organized by veterans of Dent County and the Fort Leonard Wood chapter of AUSA. It was one of the last events in Missouri taking place as part of the official 13-year commemorative period established by Congress in 2012.
“This program was signed into law by the president on Memorial Day 2012 and created a 13-year period ending on Veterans Day 2025,” said Freddie Brock of the Fort Leonard Wood AUSA chapter. “It was set up to recognize more than seven million living Vietnam era veterans and nine million families of those who served in the U.S. armed forces between 1 November 1955 and 15 May 1975.”
Brock a retired Command Sergeant Major from U.S. Army’s Military Police Corps, thanked Salem’s Richard LaBrash, American Legion Walker-Roney Post 99, and Dent County’s veterans for helping organize the Oct. 10 event. He told attendees the Fort Leonard Wood AUSA chapter has recognized 1,123 Vietnam Era Veterans in Missouri during commemorative ceremonies.
“This program will officially go away in November, however, as long as we have pins, we will continue doing it, and when we run out of pins, we still have certificates,” Brock said. Later adding, “Get the names to us and we will do it. We just did a ceremony in a living room the other day.”
Providing remarks for the Oct. 10 ceremony was Dr. Richard Elgin, who flew helicopter missions in Vietnam after graduating high school in St. James. Elgin’s journey is recounted in his 2015 memoir, “Shoulda Played the Flute: An Army Helicopter Pilot's Year in Vietnam.”
“It's an honor to be before you today, as well as a duty to be here representing all Vietnam Veterans and Vietnam Era Veterans, and also, most importantly, to represent 58,281 names on the wall in Washington,” Elgin said. “Among them are eight women, 1,413 from Missouri and 22 from Dent and the surrounding counties.”
Elgin said regardless of their different roles and duties, veterans of the Vietnam War Era answered their nation’s call, even if not everyone back home gave them thanks for their service.
“The Vietnam War was unique and unpopular, a painful chapter in our history,” Elgin said. “Its origins were complicated, its execution debated, its lessons disputed and probably ignored, its legacy yet unclear. As one commentator has written, it was a war that nobody won. It was a struggle among victims. Many in America confused the war with the warrior. Veterans returning home did not receive the thanks of a grateful nation.”
Elgin thanked the ceremony’s organizers and said the commemoration events have helped many veterans and their families.
“I lost friends, fellow pilots and flight school classmates in Vietnam,” Elgin said. “Their names are on the wall of Washington, but we Vietnam Era Veterans on the whole are proud of our service and have few regrets. We all volunteered or did what was asked of us by our country. We are proud knowing we did our part. Sadly, veterans returning from Vietnam received no formal recognition for their service, no welcoming ceremonies, no parades. For most of us, that was okay. We were anxious to put Vietnam behind us and to get on with our lives. Thankfully, in the last decade or so, we have received some belated recognition, and this commemoration period is welcome and helpful, bringing some measure of understanding and healing to those who served and our families.”
Event after a half century, Elgin said the Vietnam War’s legacy isn’t fully written. However, the comradery of the era’s veterans remains an enduring truth among those who served during the conflict.
“It's been over 50 years since the U.S. military was withdrawn from Vietnam,” Elgin said. “Fifty years, it seems like such a long time, but it's not. Some of our fellow citizens think that 50 years would be enough to erase that unpleasant war and its experiences from our consciousness. For most Vietnam Veterans, the memory is vivid and in color. No matter what we did after Vietnam, whether it was exciting or dull lives, our experiences in Vietnam remain as though it happened yesterday. The extreme emotional highs and lows are still very near the surface.
“Our character was galvanized by our experiences and how we responded to the challenges we faced. I believe our military service made us better men and women. Yes, war is tragedy, war is trauma, and has damaged many of our fellow veterans physically, psychologically and morally, just as every war has.
“We pilots became dedicated to our fellow pilots, bonds which are still as strong today as they were 50-plus years ago. I'm sure every veteran here has experienced the same thing. Most of us went to Vietnam for one year, and we came back 10 years older. Our compressed experiences increased our resilience, confidence and ability to deal with adversity. We share the common bond and experience which is impossible to adequately explain and impossible for others to completely understand. Some in our country have absolutely no idea, conception or appreciation of what we and our families endured and sacrificed for our country. So, some 50 years later, we remember our experiences, teach so that others may learn from them, honor those who did not return from Vietnam and thank those who served.”
