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Tennessee leading the nation in Vietnam veteran recognition this weekend

By: Lauren Gregory
(Contact)

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Roger Rahor

After suffering through name-calling in the early 1970s, and then the years of denial that followed, Roger Rahor finally is ready to own up to his Vietnam veteran status with pride.

The Signal Mountain resident plans to march as a veteran for the first time on Saturday, which marks a first for Tennessee and the nation: the first official Vietnam Veterans Day.

“Time does heal many wounds,” said Mr. Rahor, who has been in counseling for the past nine years and still fights post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a yearlong deployment to Vietnam with the U.S. Army in 1971. “The country has a different point of view now about people sacrificing for their country.”

Recognizing this evolution as the Iraq War — also a relatively unpopular war among much of the civilian population — wears on, Dann Dunham of Crossville, Tenn., decided last year to ask that he and fellow Vietnam veterans finally get the homecoming they never had.

“When we came home, not only did we not get a welcome, but we were mistreated,” said Mr. Dunham, who recalls being called a “baby killer” upon his return from the combat zone. “A lot of veterans couldn’t get past it.”

So Mr. Dunham, who was deployed with the Coast Guard, has been working since February 2007 to petition for the new holiday. He got his wish in May 2007, when Gov. Phil Bredesen signed a proclamation declaring March 29, 2008 — exactly 35 years after the country’s last 2,500 troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam — Vietnam Veterans Day.

The proclamation was the first of its kind in the nation, said Mr. Dunham, adding that since then it has spurred a national movement as efforts have been launched in 26 other states to enact similar measures.

Gov. Bredesen was supportive of the idea, said spokeswoman Dana Coleman, who noted that although he is not a veteran himself, he has been committed to their cause for some time.

“It’s through their service that we are reminded once more that to each generation falls the duty of spreading liberty, of protecting democracy and of safeguarding our security,” the governor said during a Veterans Day ceremony last November.

The ceremony to celebrate the new Vietnam holiday will last two days, said Mr. Dunham, whose group, the Vietnam Veterans of Cumberland County, raised about $15,000 to put on a parade and musical gala for the “homecoming.”

Mr. Dunham said he expects from 50,000 to 100,000 veterans to attend, more than 600 of them from the Chattanooga area. Some will travel from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii, and one from Australia, he said.

The event is so popular that hotels are booked for the weekend in Crossville and Cookeville, he said.

Charlie Hobbs, president of the Chattanooga chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America — the largest chapter in Tennessee and third largest in the country — is leading a bus and four trailers to the event. Chapter members plan to set up their Tennessee Vietnam Memorial Wall, which pays tribute to the 1,291 Tennesseans killed in action in Vietnam.

“We’ve got a bond that won’t ever be broken,” Mr. Hobbs said. “Our founding principle is that never again will a generation of veterans abandon another.”

For that reason, Mr. Dunham said, Iraq veterans also are invited to celebrate in what he hopes to make an annual event.

“This is going to be the most patriotic thing Tennessee has ever seen,” he said.