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By Marc Leepson
“A great day for Vietnam veterans,” I heard someone
say during the height of the huge parade along Constitution
Avenue that VVA sponsored on Saturday, November 10, in Washington,
D.C., to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the dedication
of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was a great day, too,
for VVA, for putting on a memorable and meaningful event
in the Nation’s Capital.
Some ten thousand Vietnam veterans,
many of them VVA members, came to Washington from across
the nation to join the parade. They had plenty of company
from four marching bands, fifteen floats, contingents of
Vietnam veterans from Australia, Canada, and South Korea,
some 600 former ARVN, along with a large number of other
veterans’ groups and unit associations.
The parade was an at-times exuberant, and at other times
sober, march to remember those who perished in the Vietnam
War, as well as those who served and came home to an American
society that turned its collective back on Vietnam veterans.
“We
all know there were no parades for Vietnam veterans when
we came home,” VVA President John Rowan said. “That
situation has changed. This parade is the ‘welcome
home’ that far too many of the nine million-plus men
and women who served on active duty during this era never
had. Today is a day when we celebrate our homecoming and
offer our respect and blessings for those who paid the ultimate
sacrifice in the Vietnam War.”
Following a breakfast
sponsored by Commerce Bank and inspiring opening ceremonies,
the parade stepped off at 11:15 from the National Mall at
7th Street, led by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police
Motorcycle Unit, which rolled down Constitution Avenue slowly
in vee formation. Then came a flotilla of motorcyclists under
the Rolling Thunder Banner, and the marchers, led by the
VVA float featuring the national officers, Board of Directors,
and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund board. Also on board:
parade grand marshal Jan Scruggs, the former infantryman
who conceived of The Wall and led the effort to have it built.
The
marchers, motorcyclists, floats, and assorted motorized vehicles—including
Vietnam War-era Jeeps and deuce-and-a-halfs, Humvees, and
the smartly decked-out Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chapter 203
bus—made their way west along Constitution
Avenue on a cool, cloudy day. They soaked in cheers and “welcome
homes” shouted by well-wishers who lined the wide boulevard
and filled the bleachers next to the reviewing stand in front
of the IRS Building between 11th and 12th Streets.
The two-and-a-half
hour parade ended at 18th Street, and many veterans went
on to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (where a reading
of the names had been going on since Wednesday) and the World
War II Memorial. Many attended the VVA-sponsored concert
at the Sylvan Theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument.
The concert, which went on till late afternoon, featured
the Kingston Trio, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, and
the Ding-a-Lings and Golddiggers from the old Dean Martin
TV Show.
VVA members from as far away as Alaska came to Washington
for the parade and associated Veterans Day events that weekend.
More than two dozen VVA members made the trek from Alaska;
more than a hundred Vietnam veterans came east from the Navajo
nation in New Mexico. “It’s a parade I didn’t
get 37 years ago,” said VVA member Dave Neudecker of
Chapter 55 from Newark, Ohio. He joined fellow Double Nickel
chapter members on the seven-hour trip to Washington and
proudly drove down Constitution Avenue in a World War II-era
Jeep that belongs to the chapter.
There were large numbers
of VVA members marching from New York, New Jersey, Ohio,
Maryland, and Virginia, and big groups from Chapter 392 in
Oregon City, Oregon, and from Liberty Bell Chapter 266 in
Philadelphia and 542 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They joined
VVA chapter contingents from Minneapolis, Las Vegas, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina,
Texas, Vermont, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
From
outside VVA came representatives of many other organizations,
including the Gold Star Mothers of America, the Gold Stars
Wives, the Blue Star Mothers, Sons and Daughters in Touch,
the Amerasian Family Association, Veterans Against Drugs,
the U.S. Air Force Vietnam Security Police Association, Khe
Sahn Veterans, the 101st Airborne and 173rd Airborne Division
Associations, other VSOs, and several unions, including the
American Federation of Government Employees, the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the United Auto Workers. U-Haul
International, a sponsor of the parade, provided a flotilla
of vehicles. The Benevolent Protective Order of the Elks,
another sponsor, also had a big presence.
The Washington Post ran a photo
of the Chapter 203 bus on the front page of its Sunday editions;
inside was a long article by reporter Michael Ruane that
caught the flavor of the parade very well. “Thousands
of graying Vietnam veterans, many clad in jungle boots and
old fatigues, marched down Constitution Avenue yesterday,” Ruane
wrote. “The
men and women who served in the war paraded to the rousing
music of Sousa and the calls of ‘Thank you!’ and ‘Welcome
home!’ and ‘Hoo-Ah!” from the crowds lining
the sidewalk.
“They came from all across the country
and from all lines of work. And they carried flags and banners
or wore jackets and t-shirts proclaiming where and when they
had served.” Along the way, “the marchers waved
to the crowds, smoked cigars, laughed, hugged, and more than
three decades after the war, wept over the memory of those
named on the The Wall.”
The next day, Sunday, November
11, dawned bright and sunny. That afternoon many VVA members
attended the 25th anniversary re-dedication of The Wall,
at which former Secretary of State Colin Powell was the Keynote
speaker.
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