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09/18/2019 08:15 AMWestbrook has so far identified 210 residents who are Vietnam veterans and will be inviting them, together with their families, to an awards ceremony to be held on Monday, Oct. 21. The number of local veterans is so large that the event will be held in the Westbrook High School auditorium.
Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz, in her meetings with municipal leaders across the state, put forth the proposal that towns and cities honor their Vietnam veterans. When she earlier served as secretary of the state, Bysiewisz made similar efforts on behalf of veterans of World War II and the Korean War. Veterans in attendance will be presented with a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the state.
“We’re so pleased that the lieutenant governor is doing this,” said Westbrook First Selectman Noel Bishop. “Our veterans, I can’t begin to tell you all they do for us, not only on Memorial Day weekend or Veterans Day.”
The Westbrook Honor Guard, for instance, is a volunteer group of veterans who attend the funerals of fellow veterans to pay tribute to their service.
“They are very involved with our community and we want to thank them for the service they continue to do,” Bishop said. “I’m sure that’s true for every community [that veterans] come back and they keep giving in every way that they can.”
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there were more than 184,000 veterans living in Connecticut in 2017. The Washington Post reported in 2014 that 33 percent of veterans in Connecticut served in Vietnam. Based on those figures, there are well over 60,000 Vietnam veterans in the state.
Joe Barry, a member of the Westbrook Honor Guard, calls himself a Vietnam-era veteran because he served in Okinawa from 1959 to 1962.
He served with the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, “trying to teach the Vietnamese people to [conduct the war] themselves,” he said, “It never worked.
“It started off as an advisory group and it turned into a disaster—it turned into a major war,” he said, adding “It still isn’t recognized” as a war.
Honoring Vietnam veterans, Barry said, is “way overdue. When the Vietnam veterans came back from South Asia, they were frowned upon, spit upon, and cursed upon because they were in a war that nobody wanted to recognize in the United States and nobody ever said ‘thank you’ for their service.
“When Vietnam veterans greet each other, the first thing they say is ‘Welcome home,’ because that’s not something they ever got from citizens of the United States, including the government,” he continued. “The welcome home greeting is very important to the Vietnam veteran.”
Barry said he plans to be at the event.
Bishop was astounded at the number of Vietnam veterans they were able to identify via town records, but is sure there are others living in town, he said. Those who do not receive a letter inviting them to the event are asked to contact Suzanne Helchowski at shelchowski@westbrookct.us or 860-399-3040 by Monday, Oct. 14.