Lapel pins commemorating service in the Vietnam War will be presented to veterans at the Virginia War Memorial. (Photo courtesy Virginia Department of Veterans Services)
Gov. Ralph Northam has designated March 29 and 30 as days for Virginians to honor the service of the state’s Vietnam War veterans — coinciding with the National Vietnam War Veterans Day established in 2017.
In Richmond, a public “pinning ceremony” on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at the Virginia War Memorial’s Phyllis Galanti Education Center (621 S. Belvidere St.) will award Vietnam veteran lapel pins to thank those who served. Guests scheduled to attend the event include the governor, Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Carlos Hopkins, Virginia Department of Veterans Services Commissioners Jon L. Newby II and Steven Combs, and Virginia War Memorial director Clay Mountcastle. Pins will be available at the Virginia War Memorial over the next couple of weeks to any Vietnam War veteran who requests one.
“It’s never too late to say ‘thank you’ to the brave men and women who have stepped up and answered the call to serve,” Northam, an Army veteran, says in a news release. “I invite all Virginians to join me in honoring the service of our Vietnam veterans and for their continuing contributions to the Commonwealth.”
Civic and veterans service organizations and government agencies such as the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, the Virginia Employment Commission, and the Virginia National Guard, have partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense through The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration program to schedule events this week. March 29 is the day that the last of the troops withdrew from South Vietnam in 1973.
Later on Thursday, Renee Garris, a humanities instructor at Reynolds Community College, will speak at a free event at the Virginia War Memorial at 6 p.m. about the roles women played in the Vietnam War era — including nurses, support staff, USO, women who volunteered to go to Vietnam, as well as the wives of POWs.
“It’s really overlooked by many historians,” Garris says. “Much of it is just neglected or forgotten or seen to not be important and that really bothers me because women were an integral part of all aspects of the war on the home front and in country. So I thought that we need to take the time to recognize what these women lived through, what they went through, everything they gave to the war effort.”
She became interested in the topic of women in Vietnam while creating a lecture for an art history class. Looking for dynamic black-and-white photos to show her students, she discovered compelling shots from the era.
“As I compiled the slides, I noticed that all the names attributed to the photographs were male names,” she says. “So I started digging – and what I found is that there were several female photographers that went to Vietnam — it’s just nothing is written about them. That led me to try to understand how in the 1960s era of equal rights [and] equal pay, women were marginalized in today’s understanding of the time.” She says it soon became clear that female photographers weren’t the only women being left out of historical narratives.
Garris, who has spoken previously at the Virginia War Memorial, said the poignant stories of the men who have served make her keep going back — and she hopes to hear from more voices.
“I really hope that there are some women who come that will share their stories, they want to have a really safe place to do that, I’m really looking forward to seeing that side of it,” Garris says. “For these women to see we are interested we want to know their stories and we want to keep telling people about them.”
