The Mar. 29 event, recognizing Vietnam Veterans for their service, will be held at Veterans Park.
The Plant City Armed Forces Memorial Foundation, Plant City Elks Lodge, American Legion, and AMVETS invite the community to its Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans remembrance event on Fri., March 29 at 10 a.m. at Veterans Park, located at 703 N. Wheeler St. All veterans are encouraged to wear their uniforms.
Event organizers were inspired by the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act, signed into law in 2017, which designates March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The day marks the final departure of U.S. troops from South Vietnam on March 29, 1973.
Annual gatherings serve to recognize the sacrifice of military families and Veterans of the Vietnam era, a conflict that lasted more than a decade, and to renew camaraderie among attendees.
Event speakers will include Rep. Danny Alvarez and Plant City resident Donald Day, a 20-year Army veteran who fought in Vietnam in 1969, who will share his experiences returning home to a country rife with discontent about the war and the soldiers who fought in it.
Day recalls the return flight to San Francisco, still wearing his military-issued jungle fatigues. “I arrived in San Francisco, the hotbed of protests and hippies,” he said. Military leaders took him and other soldiers to the Presidio, a former U.S. Army post, where they changed into Class-A uniforms and then returned to the airport.
He knew not to expect a ticker-tape parade but was wholly unprepared for the hostility that awaited him. “In front of the airport were a group of protestors, holding signs that said ‘sorry you made it back alive’ and ‘we were hoping you’d get killed in Vietnam’,” he said. “Yeah, that was my first contact with good ole America and that memory will never go away.”
Day, a public speaker who has shared his story with high school students, said after he tells them about his homecoming experience, students ask why he didn’t beat up the people with the signs. “I tell them that what’s ironic is that I spent 20 years in the military, one year in Vietnam almost getting killed, making sure those people had the right to carry that sign,” he said.
“Events like this are a step in the right direction, fifty years late, but it’s better than not at all,” he said. “People are finally saying they’re glad we’re back.”
With approximately 5.4 million veterans of the United States military still alive who served during the period of the Vietnam War, the window to say thanks is closing. “There aren’t many of us left and when the last Vietnam veteran dies, Vietnam also dies,” he said.
Day will speak for 15 to 20 minutes at the event, sharing this story and several others that will tear at the heartstrings of even the most staunch non-crier.
