Saturday morning stating at 11:00 a.m. on the lawn of the old Hempstead County Courthouse, a ceremony to honor veterans of the Vietnam War took place with prayers, speeches and presentations to the veterans in attendance.
At the ceremony, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the John Cain Chapter of the DAR’s Bonnie Raff presided. Other speakers included Mayor Don Still, who made the declaration of Vietnam Veterans Day and provided a sense of the numbers of those who served and Georgia Estes, who read a list of deceased Vietnam veterans from the county. Steve Lance led the attendees in the anthem.
Mary and Melody Martinez took part in the flag folding ceremony as Bonnie Raff narrated what each fold stood for. “The folding ceremony, described by the uniformed service, is a dramatic and uplifting way to honor the flag on special days, like Memorial Day Veterans Day or Vietnam Veterans Day, and it's sometimes used as a retirement ceremony. The flag folding ceremony represents the same religious principles on which our country was originally founded.”
Mayor Still shared information about the numbers who served in the war locally and nationally. “More than three million men and women from across the United States of America, including those that reside in the state of Arkansas, answered the call to service over the 13 years of the Vietnam War. Whereas we remember those 58,000 immortalized on the black granite wall in our nation's capital for having bourn the heaviest cost of this war, including 592 from the state of Arkansas and 11 from the City of Hope, Arkansas,” he said.
The ceremony also included a presentation of the colors by two Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office deputies and the presentation of a wreath at the veterans’ monument. Vietnam Veterans were presented with eagle pins by Raff and by Terrie James, Staff Chair at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Research and Extension, Hempstead County, who provided an explanatory talk on the Vietnam War 50th Anniversary flag displayed at the service.
When the ceremony ended, 24 Vietnam Veterans gathered in front of the monument to have a picture taken. Hempstead County Veterans Services Officer Donna Rosenbaum said that this turnout of veterans was likely due to an effort to send invitations to each one.
