On a crisp spring afternoon, veterans, families and community members gathered on Sunday, March 29, at Blaine’s Veterans Memorial Park for what organizers hope will become an annual National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony honoring those who served and the 1,566 Americans still missing from the war.
The ceremony included a wreath-laying, a rifle volley and a flag presentation.
“By serving their country in its time of need, they have helped preserve the very freedoms that all of us here today hold special and dear in our everyday lives,” honor guard commander Bob Wiltse said during the service.
Marine Corps veteran Dennis Angell served as master of ceremonies and delivered opening remarks on the history of America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Vietnam veteran Larry Pruden, a specialist fourth class, led a wreath-laying in honor of his brother, Robert Pruden, an Army airborne ranger and Medal of Honor recipient.
Later, the Kraus-Hartig VFW Final Salute Honor Guard Rifle Squad assembled in front of the park’s Vietnam Memorial Monument and fired three volleys in honor of the 58,479 men and women killed in the Vietnam War.
Wiltse said rifle squads such as Kraus-Hartig provide full final military honors for veterans and often do so without having known them personally, but with the knowledge that they served honorably.
He said the helmet, rifle and boots displayed during the ceremony represented the service member who once was and no longer is, while Taps served as a final tribute.
After Taps was played by Kraus-Hartig bugler Gordy Flam, a new U.S. burial flag at the park was lowered by two Vietnam veterans, Army Sgt. Dick Killina and Army Sgt. Jim Grow.
Members of the rifle squad then folded the flag into a triangle.
The flag and a custom flag case were presented to Marine Sgt. Jim McDonald, who Wiltse said served from Dec. 1, 1966, to Dec. 7, 1969.