3.28.2024 - Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day

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it is my honor to present Reverend Andy Stinson from the First Congregational Church of Far River for our opening prayer talk close to the mic I invite you to uncover and pray with me creator of all that is Giver of Life and peace itself we turn to you on this High day asking that you lend your presence to our assembly this morning let we who gather be granted the spirit

and the actions to honor Those Who Bore the burden of the war in Vietnam may we hold dear the burdens they have borne and bear it with them may those who have heard the rotor beats of a huie those who have felt the blast of heat when the aircraft doors open heard the cough of an incoming mortar or the crack of an AK let us this day take take with them the

the things they carry and let us this day honor every sacrifice tend every wound and fully welcome home every Soldier sailor Airman marine and Coast Guardsman knowing our humble thanksgivings and our meager efforts are incomplete to the task and so calling upon you the true author of peace and Thanksgiving to be present here and now upon our lives and Upon Our Living that with your blessing through our

ceremonies and our actions they may truly know the Sacred Love of Fall River and that of a grateful nation and that all they have endured is not in vain and our world is to become the best it has yet to be through the efforts of their sacrifice we pray this in your holy name amen I'd like to call upon representative Azara to provide us with the pledge of allegion he is also a gold star father

and for that I thank you thank you ma'am it's my honor to Lead You In The Pledge of Allegiance can we all face our American flag those of you that are veterans should stand and salute everyone else hats off hand over your heart and say it loud and say it proud ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation

under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all amen well done thank you so you may all have a seat the national anthem will be performed by our own Evan massu sorry I gave you a little breather sit for a

second oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we haed at the Twilight last gleaming who broad stripes and bright stars through the perous fight or the ramp parts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave or the land of the free and the

home of the brave thank you okay now you may all be seated that good now The Honorable mayor Paul Coogan of the city of Fall River it's an honor to serve as the mayor of the city of Fall River where Pride for our veterans and our fallen soldiers runs extremely deep March 29th is Vietnam Veterans Day and obviously Fall River has always paid a big price when the world goes to war

and our veterans are some are the people we will never forget we honor those who served our country selflessly on the battlefield whenever our nation called and every service member of the Vietnam generation should know that the sacrifices mattered and that their service to our country was extraordinary we will never forget the bravery and what they have done or they have sacrificed to keep this country

safe and strong and I always tip my hat to the veterans who served and I appreciate all your service you gave and all the sacrifices you made thank you very much thank you I'm very proud you shut it off on me now yeah okay it's on now um I'm very happy and proud to introduce our next speaker who has done Yan's work with the veterans of for River our own vso Michelle

Hamilton hi everybody thank you so much for coming today and to every single Vietnam veteran in this audience welcome home those words mean an awful lot and I know they mean a lot to you so welcome home we do we have quite a few different folks with us today and I'm not sure that you noticed we have um our partners from the vet center in hyanis the Cape Cod Vet

Center the vet center in New Bedford and actually Connecticut too um they are one of the first places that I ever went for Vietnam Veterans Day was um the Cape Cod Vet Center and Adam called me and he said hey we'd like to come down to Fall River so it seems pretty fitting to me to have those folks represented with us here today if you don't know about the vet center the vet center is a very

special place for combat veterans and Veterans who've had um military sexual trauma it's a smaller space for veterans they have a couple of tables out front if at all inclined and would like to grab some literature please do so um I just want to say a few words about the Vietnam veterans in this audience some of you were drafted you had no choice a lot of you chose to serve your

country when you came home you weren't given a fitting return I think you have made an immense difference in the generations of younger veterans when they returned home it wasn't a collective hey we have to do something but every single Vietnam veteran said not on my watch and I'm so proud of all of you for that and I can't thank you enough our younger generation of veterans will never feel the way that

you felt welcome home and thanks for being here today next on the speaking program is our former vso Raymond ha who now is the commander of the for River War veterans

Council uh thank you Linda and uh thank you all for being here I'm not running for anything why you doing it to me all right oh right into it there you go okay i' like to thank you all for joining us here today especially uh gold star families who have endured so much and um everyone from the uh veteran community that have served um the uh Veterans war council uh sits with uh

many members of different uh organizations uh to serve veterans and to um provide them with any kind of assistance uh that we can and um Vietnam Veterans Day is probably right now 50 years old it was uh first one we had was the year after the uh war ended and um we've been doing it every year since and if by looking around here and this is a tribute to you

all Fall River gets it fall river built the Vietnam Wall Fall River has installed a wall in their veteran service office upstairs with the brave 23 men that lost their lives here uh during that conflict uh some of whom were friends of myself and um I know we have veterans here that were in Country and this um rainy period that we've had for the last uh two months probably reminds you of some of the worst days

you had in country uh during the uh monsoons so a little bit in not too long on a history of of uh what the Vietnam Memorial Day and why it came came about uh during the conflict there was over 9 million veterans men and women who served in some capacity either in country or back in the States or other countries as support uh to the war and uh during that time uh families and

Veterans endured great hardship because it was an unpopular War where they're fighting a war in Southeast Asia under the Domino Theory which John Kennedy President Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson thought up which said if one Southeast Asian country fell the rest of them would fall to Communism and and we stayed there for a long time and the buildup went from approximately 9,000 um service Personnel in Vietnam

and then ended up with 500,000 there toward the end with 15,000 that year being killed and 100,000 being wounded and then um I guess they decided enough was enough and um the rest goes to history so again I would like to thank you all for being here thank you for supporting veterans and like I said congratulations Fall River you get it right thank you next is a gentleman that does so

much for veterans um I was very proud to be on the Vietnam Wall committee with him for three years that it took us to bring that wall but we did it um however now he is the commander of the for River Vietnam veterans association Mr William Bill desmaris my remarks are going to my remarks are going to be short and sweet um um number one on behalf of the Vietnam veterans of Fall River

Association which by the way the honor God are all in country Vietnam veterans they all served in country so please give them a hand I on behalf of all vietn non veterans those on the wall those that returned home and those that have passed since the only thing I can say and the one thing we all want every single Vietnam veteran sitting here is thank is to say thank you thank you for remembering us because

one by one we'll all be gone but all of you who are sitting here the families and the groups that supported and feed them and think about them in whole days like this it'll be your job your task your duty and your responsibility and we hope your desire to continue to remember us thank you all very much God bless now we have our three state representatives that Trio goes everywhere to represent the city of Fall

River um representative Alan Sylvia a veteran representative Carol Fiola and representative Paul Schmid who is also a marine veteran we also have um we're four today four todaya and we also have um BJ McDonald with us today who is our registry of deeds individual take it away good morning uh also uh Steve xaro state representative from Cape Cod we're happy that he's with us today the go go Our Father

um you know um it was just um mentioned by uh by um Ray he that uh you know the World War II there are very few World War II veterans left now the Vietnam era veterans are those who we looked at a few years ago as uh you know the the people who were few uh now with a few many Vietnam veterans are uh are passing because we're reaching that period of time in our lives the

Autumn of Our Lives we're not ready to quit but it's the Autumn of our lives but I was having a flashback um when I came from overseas in 19 home from 1972 I arrived in uh stopped in uh Hawaii for a debriefing uh because of my clearance and then San Francisco where I was being discharged when I arrived at the base in San Francisco uh I had very few civilian

clothes so um I wanted to go into town I had never been in San Francisco before and of course I had my uniform on very proud to wear my uniform but when I get to the gate uh they stopped me and said the Marines can't go into into San Francisco with a uniform I I I could I couldn't understand that but you they said you won't be respected and uh commanders of

the bases asking all Marines not to wear their uniform in town what a what an embarrassment that was now um I went into town and I rode under the uh Golden Gate Bridge I was all alone everybody was hugging their their loved ones but I was standing here like a turkey uh going going under the Golden Gate Bridge and I'll never forget and I had that flashback when I was sitting there when Ray was talking but

um I upon Return To Fall River we didn't receive that uh dis respect people were concerned and they treated us as veterans and for River has continually continually over the years matter of fact I don't know another community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that has more services more events than honor our veterans and and we're we're very proud we're very proud of that uh as it was

mentioned men with Bill de marit the Vietnam Wall and and those uh individuals here here today who were on that committee um so important to our community so uh I too want to say welcome home and I know that a few others may have uh something to say yeah wonderful uh remarks uh Allan from a fellow Marine uh Commander Maris uh C you were mentioning a a comment of yours uh triggered something in my mind you

said and you've said something that other members of the Vietnam Veterans of America have said that uh when the last veteran of Vietnam passes upward when the last vva member passes upward uh we'll have to turn the lights out on the evva because that organization was formed uh just to bring together the uh veterans from that era and I've been kind of thinking I I'm taking I'm thinking of it in a different

way now when I look back and when I look out and see all those who served in Vietnam and during Vietnam I don't think the lights are going to go out on the example that you have presented when the last one of us goes to his or her reward I think that the example that you all we all set uh is going to remain it's going to remain here in Fall River it's going

to remain in the Commonwealth and I believe it's going to remain Burning Brightly in our wonderful country so uh thank thank God to the Vietnam veterans thank God to the Commonwealth and thank God to this amazing country may God bless America thank you and I will now yield uh to uh my colleague representative Fiola thank you Reb Schmid Reb Sylvia they're always so gracious to say ladies first but uh today Vietnam

veterans first so uh uh great to be with you all clergy um vsos gold star family members our elected officials our mayor of course especially our Vietnam veterans here in the audience today uh rep syia touched on it as uh how uh this community stands with our veterans every day uh we always stand up and remind everyone that Massachusetts is by far unquestionably statistically the most generous

thoughtful state for our veterans and that is a fact uh but as was alluded to by rep syvia there is no city that has the organizations and I'm looking at me I don't want to name them because I see Ken I see Sue I see you know all of you here um you know father everybody here who does everything they possibly can to make our veterans feel respected loved cared for fed at times supported financially if

necessary and as Michelle said welcomed home um we are so proud to be here um every day for you we will be here the lights will not go out and um it it's just such an honor to to look at you all every day or every day we see you and and and think how proud We Are to know that you're the fabric of our community and that anything we can do we try to do

for you so thank you all um and now I'd like to bring on one of our colleagues and gold staff uh parent uh Steve aares thank you thank you madam chair thank you to my colleagues I'm a very proud American I come from Cape Cod I represent the the fighting fifth Barnstable District so mayor and everyone thank you for having the veterans from Cape card here today it's very

special but before I moved to the cape I was bornn and raised in New Bedford and I grew up in New Bedford and I've been in Fall River many times and yes sir you did it right I've never seen a city with so many beautiful monuments you have the uh USS Massachusetts and as you walk down that walkway All The Monuments that you're going to see the Cape Cod veterans many of them have

not seen them yet but your Vietnam War Memorial um Memorial is amazing I was there when you dedicated it your your Marine Corps monument and your Gold Star Family Monument that's the only one in the Commonwealth so Fall River has done it right you always will be proud of that and I'll tell you uh being a gold star father is the worst thing that could ever happen are there any other gold star families in the

room you are who did you lose your brother cousin your cousin and you were young men when that happened yes so you see how it changes lives so my son Nicholas was killed in combat as a marine at age 21 in Afghanistan and it changed our whole lives so my children uh Alex was 19 and my twins Elizabeth and Ashlin were 15 and they'll never be the same and neither will we so I feel your pain

but one way that we recover the best we can is to do things like this and I was there at Camp leun when Nick Battalion first Battalion ninth Marines are there any one ners in the room you're a one n Marine then you know that is the most tragedies most sacrifices made by any Marine unit in history in Vietnam and I was at Camp leun when they unfurled your colors and there were many Vietnam

veterans there standing next to my 19-year-old marine and uh I'll never forget that moment so the pride that you have in service to your country is will never be forgotten and just thank you to all of you from the city of Fall River and um to my colleagues in the people's house for inviting me to be a guest today God bless you

well that was pretty impactful to hear thank you all very much for your kind words the reading of the Vietnam veterans Proclamation will be read by retired Marine Corps Major Greg Quigley and he is the district director of the department of veteran services of Cape Cod welcome to PA River thank you uh just a few remarks uh before I read the president's Proclamation thank you to all the Vietnam veterans who that

are here today thanks of course to all those that gave their lives and I want to thank a special group of Vietnam veterans those who came back from combat and decided to stay in the Serv Serv for a little while veterans such as me are the beneficiaries of their tutelage they had a great impact on many future veteran uh uh groups of veterans such as myself if you went in the service

anytime mid 70s to early 80s and maybe even a little Beyond you had the benefit of being trained by vietn Nam combat veterans from 75 when we left Saigon if you were going into the service right after that anyone in the service from E4 and up on the enlisted ranks or maybe 02 first lieutenant captain and on up in the officer ranks will combat veterans from Vietnam training another generation that generation benefited

when in Panama Grenada Beirut and then the first Gulf War I know I met a gunny here who was in both Vietnam and fought in the Gulf War it's men like that and women like that that help keep me alive and so a heartfelt thank you from those of us who survived because of what we learned from from you by the president of the United States of America a proclamation on

National Vietnam War of Veterans Day we honor all those who bravely served in the Vietnam War and who sacrificed as did their families and caregivers on behalf of our nation for almost two decades Americans raised their right hands and committed to serve and defend our constitution as uniform members of the United States armed forces during a tumultuous period in our country's history throughout the years of the

Vietnam War 9 million Americans earned the title of United States veteran today and every day we honor their bravery and commitment and give thanks to a generation of Americans who Val valiantly fought in service of the country they love while recognizing the continuing impact on so many veterans of the V Vietnam conflict along with their families caregivers and survivors we will always remember those

we lost in honor those who came home in 2012 our nation launched a 13-y yearlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War to ensure that every veteran family caregiver and Survivor impacted by the difficult years in Vietnam feels our nation's gratitude for their sacrifice every service member of the Vietnam generation should know that their sacrifices mattered and that their service made a

service members who remain missing and unaccounted for know that our nation's efforts to bring them home will never stop we pledge our steadfast care and support to our Vietnam Veterans as we do for all of our veterans we will honor our sacred obligation to you and your family and to each of the 6 million Vietnam War ear of veterans who are with us today we honor your service and all that you have done for our

nation now therefore I Joseph R Biden Jr president of the United States of America by virtue of the authority vested in Me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby I affirm this nation's commitment to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war which began on Memorial Day May 28th 2012 and which will continue through Veterans Day November 11th 2025 I call upon all Americans Americans

to seek out and extend the nation's profound gratitude to each of our Vietnam veterans and their families and caretakers during public ceremonies and programs throughout the country while expressing deep compassion for the families of the Fallen those who remain missing and uncount and unaccounted for and all those who served and yet no longer Walk Among Us it witness thereof I have here to set my

hand this 28th day of March in the year of Our Lord 2022 and of the independence of the United States of America the 246th Joseph R Biden

Jr thank you very much next is the presentation of Vietnam veteran pins and Adam dler is Doppler is going to explain that to you all Adam good morning everyone uh thank you for coming my name is Adam doler I'm the veterans outreach program specialist at the Cape Cod Vet Center I want to thank Michelle Hamilton in the city of Fall River and everyone else who helped make this ceremony happen today um I would

like to start by introducing uh a couple members of the staff from the vet center program who will be assisting with today's uh pinning ceremony Donna gaglione from The Cape Cod vet center Ash Lovejoy from the Cape Cod Vet Center Craig Hall from the Harford Connecticut Vet Center and Danny Nao from the uh New Bedford Vet Center um today's pinning ceremony is a way for us to honor our Vietnam veterans and

gold star family members today's declaration States A Grateful Nation honors and thanks you for your service welcome

home we would like to start today's pinning ceremony by acknowledging our gold St Gold Star Family loved ones who pay the ultimate sacrifice for our nation for those gold star family members who can stand could you please come up front so that we can honor you thank

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yeah absolutely oh she is coming up thank You' are there any other gold star family

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hon you and thanks you for your service

sir we would now like to honor our Vietnam combat veterans for those who could stand could you please form a line and come up so we can let honor you thank you could do twoes however you want to do

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are there other any other Vietnam combat veterans who are unable to walk up okay great so we're gonna now we would like to honor the honor guard who are all Vietnam combat veterans as well

that concludes the part of the pinning ceremony if anyone got missed or if there's a family member that needs to grab one after please come up and see us and thank you once again welcome

home at the end don't forget about the housekeeping yep well thank you that was uh very nice of the vet center to do that and we have our own Vet Center the Boer Vet Center in fall river that does a lot of things um for Veterans as well and we have Ken Le who's here representing them today so we have a lovely young lady who will be performing God Bless America but

there is a Paula Smith in the audience and if you could

stand just so that you know Paula is a retired army lieutenant colonel and her daughter is AA who will be singing

AA God bless that I love stand beside her and guide her through the night in the light from above from the mountains to the Prairies to the O white with fo God bless America my home sweet home

that was amazing beautiful thank you so much our closing prayer will be performed by our own father Rob nimk kovich of the Blessed Trinity

Parish let us uncover let us pray pray Lord Our God As We Gather on this National Vietnam War Veterans Day to honor and remember our veterans who served our country in this conflict we give thanks for their selfless sacrifice and the service of these dedicated men and women who have fought for protected and provided us the freedom that we continue to enjoy today we honor and acknowledge their

Devotion to duty and our country in defense of Liberty Justice and Truth showing us the meaning of true patriotism we also honor those veterans who served in Vietnam and made the ultimate sacrifice 58,000 plus who gave their lives we remember those prisoners of War and over the 2600 who are unaccounted for we missing an action there as we remember and honor them may we dedicate ourselves to

continue the Heritage that has been entrusted to us through their sacrifice oh God may we also hold each of our current military members and their families always in our love and prayers until your world is perfected in peace through our Lord we also ask your blessing on those Who provided and prepared for this important remembrance today as well as all those who continue to provide care

and support for our veterans who have given so very much for all of us we ask this in your holy name amen amen and may God bless Fall River the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may God bless America thank you Larry Baro will perform

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seat I kind of feel badly that representative aaro was born in New Bedford I wish he would have been born in Fall River however he did say it well that for river goes above and beyond and there is no above and beyond I wish that we could do more for veterans but we do as much as humanly possible um you know some people talked about what happens when all of our World War II veterans are

gone my dad died at 91 um several years ago a World War II veteran but I still see World War II veterans around but we don't forget them we don't forget any War so on May the 17th which is a Friday at oakr Cemetery we honor our Civil War veterans so if you want to be there it's at 10:00 and there's a hundred students from fansa school that are coming because I think it's

important that the young children know about veterans and what veterans have done for them so that's 10 o00 in the morning on Friday May 17th take out your phone put it in your calendar come on I want to see you doing that um and then of course Memorial Day May 27th we will have our parade and it will start at Kennedy Park you want to participate in the parade you want to March we have vehicles you

can certainly um ride in the parade and if you don't want to do either one of those at least come and show your support to the veterans show up for the parade it starts at 11:00 and we do have a phenomenal um veterans Bicentennial Park so representative aaro I would say and and our friends that came down from the cape come down with your groups to Fall River come and look at what we have to

offer and our mayor just purchased a handicapped trolley we will help you with rides we will coordinate get off that Highway don't cross that bragger bridge if you're coming from the cape or new bfid don't cross that bridge stop and Fall River first so that's my PSA announcements for today um we will be having lunch and that has been prepared by the uh veterans um kitchen they do a great

job it's every Wednesday it's at Holy Trinity Church if if you haven't stop Blessed Trinity Church if you haven't stopped by yet come by doors open 10:30 people startop coming um and they always cook a phenomenal meal and then after uh we have lunch please join us we will have Irvin Russell and um director Colonel of Providence uh VA they will be presenting the wreath we were going to do the

wreath at the wall but because of the weather we're going to do it at the Vietnam chair so please stay we're going to do it at the Mia P chair so please stay I hope you had a wonderful celebration with us recognizing all our Vietnam veterans enjoy the meal drive safely home God bless F River and the United States of America thank you