Voices of the Veterans: Honoring Vietnam War Veterans

SALEM, Va. (WFXR) — The primary focus of the United States Vietnam War Memorial, a national 50th anniversary commemoration, is to thank and honor Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice.

During the first half of the year, the VFW Post 10840 and the American Legion Post 111 of Rocky Mount held a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park in Rocky Mount. The Vietnam Veterans Association of Roanoke also held an event at the American Legion Post 3 in Salem.

“When I returned to this country in June 1974 after my military service, I was very honored. When the recognition first came out, someone finally thought of us enough to realize that it was necessary to have this kind of celebration. It was not a warm welcome and people just didn’t understand. Not only did we face a little discrimination because we had been in a war that people thought we hadn’t won, but we also faced discrimination in employment and in some other areas because we were Vietnam veterans. As an African-American, you had to go back to the same old, you might say, racist racism that we left behind when we went to war,” said Vietnam War and U.S. Air Force veteran Andre Peery.