A Word from the Founder

Help Us Honor Vietnam Veterans, March 28

The Vietnam Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 made March 29th of each year National Vietnam Veterans Day. Wyoming designates March 30 of each year Wyoming Veterans Welcome Home Day.

The National Museum of Military Vehicles is celebrating both of these events at the museum with a full day program Saturday, March 28.

It is an understatement to say American Vietnam Veterans did not receive the recognition they deserved when they returned home from the Vietnam War. No group of American veterans ever have been treated so poorly.

Americans who were not alive during the Vietnam War will find this hard to believe, but Vietnam veterans returning home from the war were regularly ambushed at airports in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Los Angeles by anti-war protestors rushing up to them, literally spitting on them, and calling them baby killers.

During the Vietnam War era, Americans serving in the military were often warned not to appear in public in their uniforms for their own safety. This is only the tip of the iceberg of what our Vietnam veterans endured and how our country failed them.

Most of our Vietnam veterans have passed away but more than 600,000 are still alive in their 70s or older. This adds urgency to this year’s National Vietnam Veterans Day. We are losing more Vietnam veterans every day. Who agrees that we should make it a priority now to honor our remaining Vietnam veterans the way they should have been honored more than 50 years ago? Next year may be too late.

Schedule of Events

We will begin our National Vietnam Veterans Day celebration March 28 with a special in-depth tour of our Vietnam War gallery beginning at 10:00 a.m. to set the stage for the remainder of the day.

At noon, a Blackhawk helicopter piloted by the Wyoming Army National Guard will land at the museum to deliver Wyoming’s Governor and First Lady, Adjutant General Porter, Chairman of the Wyoming Veterans Commission, and Director of the Wyoming Veterans Commission.

The helicopter will be on display for the public to see throughout the afternoon.

A Wyoming Veterans Welcome Home Day ceremony will begin at 1:00 p.m. in the Museum’s Cowboy Guard Hall. The Governor, the Adjutant General, and the Chairman of the Veterans Commission all will speak and give special recognition to several Wyoming Veterans.

The museum has collaborated with the Wyoming Department of Education to create lesson plans on American military history for teachers throughout Wyoming to use during the current school year. A video from one of these lesson plans about the Vietnam War entitled “Victory on the Battlefield and in Peace” will be shown next.

This 14-minute video gives a concise overview of the history of Vietnam beginning with it becoming a French colony in 1858 through WWII, the French Indochina War, and the impact and consequences of the Vietnam War.

The main event of the day will be the community’s first look at the WyoPBS documentary Home from the Vietnam War featuring Wyoming Vietnam veteran Lt. (Ret.) Lee Alley and Vietnam War refugee John Nguyen.

Lt. Alley provided a one-man-last-stand when his platoon was overrun during the battle to give survivors a chance to escape. The film focuses on his experiences when he came home to the U.S.

A highlight of the film is Lt. Alley’s return to Vietnam in 2025 for the first time since the war ended to revisit the Firebase Cudgel battlefield and meet Vietnamese veterans who fought against him in that battle.

After the showing, the film’s director, Lt. Alley, his wife Ellen, and Mr. Nguyen all will participate in a panel discussion and public Q&A moderated by WyoPBS CEO Joanna Kail. The film is in the running for several film festival awards.

Most schools in the U.S. do not teach students about the Vietnam War or the service and sacrifice of our Vietnam veterans and their families. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be a Vietnam veteran in your 70s, 80s, or 90s to find out that what you did on behalf of your country at great cost in the prime of your life is now deemed not important enough to teach in schools?

Please help us fix this on March 28. A huge public turnout will show our Vietnam veterans that their stories, valor, and sacrifice did count, have not been forgotten, and will be remembered forever by the American people.

If you can’t attend our event at the museum, please attend another National Vietnam Veterans Day event around the country. If you can’t attend an event, please honor our Vietnam veterans in your own way before it is too late.

Thank you Vietnam veterans. Welcome home.

Thank you and welcome home all U.S. veterans. Never before have so many owed so much to so few (with apologies to Winston Churchill).