Letter to the Editor: Vietnam War veterans deserve respect

Dear Editor,

The national news talks about March holidays – National Oreo Cookie Day and such – but never mentions Vietnam War Veterans Day. Saturday, March 29, is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The recognition act was signed into effect in 2017. It was nearly 50 years in coming.

I’ve taken a back seat long enough. The Vietnam War was not a popular war. You hear it said it wasn’t a real war like WW II. It was very real to those who were there.

I was in Operation Hickory, a 10-day operation that began in 1967. It was the first authorized operation to go into the DMZ, the border between North and South Vietnam. The Marines lost 142 men and saw 896 wounded and 37 captured, with 800-plus confirmed enemy casualties. We lost nearly as many people in this operation as in the entire Gulf War, which gets more recognition.

I don’t need the recognition. I have my war demons at bay. But the Vietnam War has the highest percentage of severe PTSD, suicide and homeless of any war. It would be nice if they got some recognition. Honor also goes to the nearly 60,000 Americans who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

Doug Butler