On Monday morning, March 29, a ceremony was held at the Central Texas Veterans Memorial in Brownwood, recognizing National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Colonel Tom Gray (shown in photo) of Brownwood, Vietnam veteran, spoke about the impact the war had on our country at the time and even now.
At the beginning of his presentation, Colonel Gray honored the 11 Brown County servicemen who lost their lives in Vietnam. Each name was read aloud.
- Raymond Rodriguez Delgado
- Eddie Lee Ephraim
- James T. Griffin Jr.
- J.D. Harrell
- Phillip Hease Holmes
- Arthur Earl Keesee
- Brit P. Lemmons
- Williard Alton Perry Jr.
- Michael Autrey Teague
- Nelson Payne Tuttle
- Kenneth Wayne Wheeler
Gray shared with the audience that, during war time, there was a little over 2.7 million servicemen that were stationed in South Vietnam. Of that number, there were over 58,200 killed in action. Wounded in action were 303,704, with 75,000 of those seriously disabled. Of that 2.7 million, 7,484 were women that served in Vietnam. The POWs were 766 of which 114 died in captivity.
“We still have well over 2,000 missing in action that we’re still trying to locate and come to a conclusion to what happened to them so their families know.”
The last U.S. military forces left Vietnam March 29, 1973.
(Photo courtesy of Derrick Stuckly of Brownwoodnews.com)