MERIDIAN, Idaho —
A service was held in Kleiner Park Tuesday afternoon to honor all the U.S veterans who served during the Vietnam era.
The event included music by the 25th Army Band playing patriotic music for the attendees, information on free resources to veterans in the community, a flyover by the Idaho National Guard and Idaho Helicopter, a proclamation reading, and speeches from Governor Brad Little and Judith Blake Eighmy, a Vietnam Veteran of the Navy Nurse Corps.
"More than 58,000 troops lost their lives in Vietnam, eight of the more than 44,000 Idahoans who served during that time are still missing, we want our veterans to know while we cannot fully know or understand your experiences and the daily battle, we value you," Gov. Little said at the event.
The event then transitioned to the Meridian Senior Center where attendees had access to food and drinks served by Eagle’s American Legion Post #127 and Meridian’s VFW Post #4000.
"A lot of us veterans never wanted to talk about our experiences. Nobody wanted to hear them. It was considered the quickest way to end a conversation, was to admit that you were there and so 'I think we repressed a lot of things' and so this gives people an opportunity to think differently and to actually verbalize what their experience was," Blake Eighmy said.
Among attendees, was 74-year-old Paul Sherman who served in the Vietnam war, but the now Secretary-Treasurer of the Vietnam Veterans of America, still remembers the conditions as if they were yesterday.
“I was in Vietnam from 27th of February 1968 to August 25th, I was a radio operator in the infantry unit,” Sherman said. “We did military operations in what was known as the iron triangle in the third core area of Vietnam. It was our job to do search and rescue missions.”
He was just 20 years old when he became one of 2.7 million U.S. service members who served in Vietnam.
“You're a young person, your life is high school. Everything you do in your life culminates in those three years of high school and none of it has to do with warfare or losing friends,” Sherman said. “You spend a lot of time worrying if you're going to survive the night, so it's pretty scary and it's an adrenaline rush in its own sense. For me, it was a very difficult situation because I had friends that were dying every day.”
He said Tuesday's event in Meridian was indescribable.
“You have one-tenth of the population who spent time in the military,” Sherman said. “These men and women all spent time giving of themselves and that's something that comes from the heart.”
The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 designated March 29 of each year as National Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day to honor Veterans who served during the Vietnam War Era (between November 1, 1955 and May 15, 1975) regardless of the location of their service including:
- Nine million Americans serving during that time
- 7 million Americans living today
- 2.7 million U.S. service members who served in Vietnam
- 58,282 whose names are memorialized on a black granite wall in our Nation's capital
- 304,000 who were wounded
- 1,584 Missing in Action heroes who have not yet returned to American soil
- 766 Prisoners of War – 144 who died in captivity
Additionally, there were events held elsewhere throughout the state to honor the service and sacrifice of Vietnam-era veterans.
As the nation remembers the actions of those who served on this Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day, for Sherman, it is about much more.
“60 years ago, we were strangers and now we're all brothers and sisters,” Sherman said.
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