Honoring Vietnam veterans at ceremony Tuesday 040417

Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

On a blustery day at Fort Bayard National Cemetery, veterans from the Vietnam Veterans of American Chapter 358, American Legion Post 18, and Marine Corps League Detachment 1328, all of Grant County, New Mexico, honored those who served during the then-longest war in American history, the conflict in Vietnam.

Bipartisan legislation, S. 305, authored by Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, permanently designated March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. President Donald J. Trump signed it into law.

Loraine Anglin opened the ceremony with The Star-Spangled Banner and ended it with God Bless America.

Frank Donohue of the Marine Corps gave an invocation, saying: "We thank you for the service and sacrifice of those who didn't come home and thank you to those who returned," and a benediction with a similar sentiment.

Joe Trujillo, in charge of Fort Bayard National Cemetery, spoke on behalf of the Veterans Administration and the National Cemetery Association.

"We honor the 5,000 who lie in this hallowed ground," Trujillo said. "This is a ceremony to recognize the service and sacrifice of those who fought in America's longest war. Know that you are not forgotten."

Local Vietnam veteran and member of the VVA chapter 358, Armando Amador, read from a news release.

"Forty-two years ago today, the last American combat troops left the former South Vietnam, marking the end of what was then our longest war," John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America, said on March 29, 2017.

"Our war is long over," Rowan continued, "but for many its legacy of hurt continues to this day. Because a war does not end after the last bullet was fired, VVA will continue to assist those who still suffer, mentally, as well as physically, from the war's deprivations, and from the failures of those entities of government whose responsibility it is to aid our veterans physically, mentally and fiscally."

Amador then gave some history of the war. In 1965, 1,000 active combat units arrived in Vietnam. In 1973, the withdrawal of American military from Vietnam took place. Fifty-eight thousand American lives were lost during the war, with fifty-seven thousand two hundred names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

Four hundred and one New Mexicans lost their live in Vietnam. Of them, nine came from Grant County: from Hurley, Capt. Robeter Alan Sisk; from Santa Rita, Sp4 Antonio Alvarado Esqueda, LCpl David Centeno Grijalva, Pfc Octaviano Harvey, and pfc Angel Alarid Quevedo; and from Silver City LCpl Carlos Cruz Aguirre, LCpl Gilbert Grubb, Col John Smith Hamilton and Cpl Bobby Allan Taylor.