Vietnam Era Veteran Welcome Home & Pinning Ceremony

When the American soldiers returned home from World War II in 1945, they were greeted as heroes in the United States. Cities and towns across the country held parades to honor the returning veterans and recognize the sacrifices they had made. But the homecoming was very different for most Vietnam veterans. They came back to find the United States torn apart by debate over the Vietnam War. There were no victory parades or welcome-home rallies. Instead, most Vietnam veterans returned to a society that did not seem to care about them, or that seemed to view them with distrust and anger.

Not all Vietnam veterans made it back home; 2,646 Americans were unaccounted for at the end of the Vietnam War, in all theaters of operations. Since the end of the war and the repatriation of American prisoners of war in 1973, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has recovered or…