Honoring Service and Renewing Our Promise  

BY TOM BURKE

I do not generally write about activities that I am involved in every month. However, in this case, I believe it is important for members to know how their leadership is involved in Washington, D.C., circles.

I am pleased to say that I was invited to be one of three keynote speakers at The Wall in Washington, D.C., on March 29, National Vietnam War Veterans Day. I was proud to represent you, Vietnam Veterans of America, and almost 6.2 million Vietnam War veterans here at home and abroad on that day.

I was on the dais with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins. The event was broadcast and can be viewed on YouTube.

I told the crowd assembled the following, in part:

Today, we mark Vietnam War Veterans Day, a day not simply to remember a war, but to recognize the men and women who served during one of the most difficult chapters in our nation’s history.

For many Vietnam veterans, coming home was not the moment of welcome and appreciation that earlier generations experienced. The cost of war was not measured in statistics, but in lives lost, in futures interrupted, and in families forever changed.

Instead of parades and open arms, many of us returned to a country deeply divided over the war. The anger about the conflict was too often directed at the young Americans who had been sent to fight it. Many Vietnam War veterans were ignored. Many were disrespected. Too many were blamed.

The veterans who served were not responsible for the war, but they served anyway. Their experience shaped an entire generation and gave birth to Vietnam Veterans of America’s Founding Principle: “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

As we reflect on the black granite wall behind me, we remember those, living and dead, who paid the price of freedom with their blood. We are reminded of the true price of war. Each name on the wall represents someone who was loved: a husband, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a neighbor, or a friend. Those who got the knock on the door, those who waited for years, and those who still wait.

Those words are more than a motto. They are a promise that Vietnam War veterans made: what happened to us would never happen to another generation of veterans. Ever.

For decades, we have tried to live up to that promise by standing beside veterans of every war and conflict. Over time, our communities changed, and our country finally realized that the warrior and the war were not the same. Cities held parades long overdue, and America began to say, “Thank you.”

Today, Vietnam War veterans are in their seventies and eighties. We have become the senior statesmen of the veteran community. That carries both responsibility and opportunity. We have the opportunity to pass along the lessons we learned. We also have the responsibility to teach younger veterans how to care for one another, how to advocate for those with PTSD, Agent Orange victims, the fullest possible accounting of our POWs/MIAs, toxic exposures, and much more. We must continue strengthening the bond between the military and the nation.

No matter how you may feel about the war, never take it out on the service member who fought it for you. The men and women who serve do so because their country asked them to. And when they come home, they deserve our respect, our support, and our help transitioning back into civilian life.

When veterans return home, I assure you that they carry experiences that most people will never see or fully understand. Vietnam War Veterans Day reminds us not only of the past, but of our responsibility to the future.

Today, as our nation once again has young Americans fighting in faraway places, the lessons of the Vietnam War remain clear: people may debate the war, but the men and women sent to fight it must always know that their country stands behind them, now and when they come home, no matter what.

Vietnam War veterans stand as living examples of something that should never have happened, and we hope will never be repeated again in our nation’s future.

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