The following speech includes a call to action to each of us. Please heed the advice given.,

By John Stewart

Recently, I spoke at a very special sunrise service honoring Vietnam War veterans from across Nebraska.

You may be asking yourself why I am writing about an event in another state. I want the people of Citrus County to fully understand the difficulties faced by Vietnam War veterans. And perhaps my words below will be of help to anyone in need here.

In 1985, a group of military veterans from World War II and the Korean War formed the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion (NVVR). As time and the age of personnel passed, the 20-member managing committee became increasingly dominated by Vietnam War veterans and their family members.

The purpose of NVVR was simply to have Vietnam War veterans a reunion avenue for sharing and healing. However, it was now coming to an end due to the age of the committee members, with no one else stepping forward to continue the program.

The sunrise service followed a day-before banquet attended by approximately 650 Vietnam War veterans and family members from across the state. The planned keynote speaker, Nebraska’s governor, was forced to cancel his banquet appearance due to other commitments. Scrambling to find a replacement, I was contacted and agreed to substitute for the governor.

In my 30 years of being heavily involved with the support of veterans, from an emotional stance this was the most difficult task I have ever done.

Recovery, honor, and trust

The main subject of my speech was recovery. I spoke about the difficulties we faced when coming home from the Vietnam War after experiencing the horrific actions of combat and returning to be insulted by those demonstrating against that war, despite the fact that we were in need of recovery.

But while in combat in Vietnam, I said we had two other words that were nearly as important to us as recovery upon return: honor and trust.

A perfect example of honor was in our young soldiers. Of those killed in Vietnam, 61 percent were 21 years old or younger, while thousands of them were only 18 years old.

Imagine you had just graduated from high school, and you are still three years away from being able to vote and drink alcohol legally. You may have never had a driver’s license. Then, you are drafted into the Army and spend eight weeks learning how to use a rifle and a pistol, a machine gun, a grenade and a bayonet.

Then told to go and serve and kill people … while serving with honor.

Those 18-year-old kids may not have been able to put it into words, but they quickly learned what honor was to be. They were doing their best to fulfill their mission and defend and protect their fellow soldiers. Even if risking their own life was necessary.

And for those 18-year-olds, the second important word came into their lives: trust.

They realized their brothers trusted them to do their mission, even if under heavy fire, and their lives were at risk.

Teenager or not, honor and trust were also two words every single one of us, regardless of age, lived by while serving alongside our brothers-in-arms in Vietnam. However, after thinking about it, I said a third word is necessary to describe us in Vietnam: courage.

Serving with courage

When one of our brothers-in-arms was killed, it was horrific, and we did what soldiers have to do. We cried but crammed our anguish and sorrow way down deep inside into our own secret box and we closed the lid tight so we could carry on doing our job … with courage.

But then, one day, we who survived and fought with courage and honor and trust finally came home. But, for many of us upon return, the war never ended. And that word, recovery, came into the forefront.

It is difficult for some people to understand our mental status when on Thursday we could have been in a firefight or watching a village burn or watching friends die, and on Sunday our tour was over, and we were flown out to find ourselves at LA International Airport watching Americans protest our service and sacrifices and calling us baby killers.

We needed recovery from our nightmares.

Many of us committed suicide at some point after returning to that horrific welcome home. And there were a lot of suicides. It is difficult to obtain accurate figures of how many of us did so, but the Veterans Administration (VA) and National Library of Medicine did issue reports covering the 1979 through 2019 suicides of veterans of the Vietnam War era. The number was rather unbelievable.

To put it into perspective, if every citizen of Inverness and Ocala died today, it would be less than the number of veteran suicides in VA’s report. Over 94,000 were in that report. And there are many more years of suicide numbers not included in it.

I often wonder how many of those veterans could have been saved if they had been welcomed home and provided adequate recovery programs.

I told the crowd there were probably some in the banquet room who needed recovery and, fortunately, did reach out for help. However, some of us present may not have sought recovery upon return from the hell of Vietnam due to our post-traumatic stress. I followed that by stating there are probably several reasons why we did not do so.

How could we possibly tell some stranger about the atrocities we had faced?

How could anyone who had not been there understand what we had been through?

We killed people or saw others who did so. We saw our friends get killed or wounded. We held them in our arms and cried. We were shot, blown up, and maimed.

We came home and were told not to wear our uniforms in public because it was dangerous. Uniforms we wore and served with courage, honor, and trust.

We came home and were cursed at, spit on, and humiliated for our service.

And we suffered.

Many of us went looking for comfort in a bottle, in a needle, became homeless, considered committing suicide … or actually did it.

We needed recovery and honor, but many did not receive it, and many of us did not seek help.

Getting the help we need

I was one of them and told my own story. I’ll not repeat it here because once was enough in discussing my difficulties and an extremely close moment in my life of nearly committing suicide. I used my story last night to encourage those in need of help to get it as I did.

After my speech, veteran after veteran and family member after family member came up to me to tell their own story of sacrifice, service, and suffering. Many were in wheelchairs, or using strollers or canes, missing both legs, an arm, an eye, or suffering from other injuries after being wounded in Vietnam.

Many were without any physical injuries, but obviously suffered from what I could readily see were mental health issues.

My most emotional moments occurred when multiple spouses of veterans came up to me and said their husbands needed help with their PTSD, never went to get it, and after my speech, I told them they would go get help. Their hugs will never be forgotten.

I held my tears back as best I could, but it was difficult until I returned home and began writing this article immediately. And, as I sit here with keyboard in hand, in all honesty, tears are rolling down my face from my experiences these past few days during this last reunion.

There is no actual number of how many Vietnam War direct-combat veterans reside in Nebraska, just as it is not found in Florida or throughout America. Florida has approximately 423,000 Vietnam-era veterans, according to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs in March 2025. It is challenging to find an exact number for combat veterans, specifically, as statistics often refer to the broader “Vietnam-era” designation.

Regardless of the number, I am certain that many who served in combat or simply in uniform at other locations during that turmoil are now in need of help. For those reading this article in that situation, here are possible avenues to achieve it:

Visit your church and speak with a minister. Ask for help to recover.

Go to the Veterans Service Office (VSO). They will help you get to available VA recovery support programs. In Citrus County, you have the best VSO I’ve seen over the past 30 years.

Go online at VA.gov where you will find an enormous number of methods to achieve recovery.

Use your cellphone and dial 988, then press 1 for 24/7, confidential crisis support. By the way, that crisis line is also for military family members.

Whatever method you choose, if you need help, follow my example. Go get recovery.

I hope and pray that if there are some in Citrus County’s thousands of veterans experiencing problems and needing help, they will take my advice.

A special message

A few minutes before I departed for home from my speech that night, ironically, I received a forwarded email that I believe says in its entirety what America should have said to the Vietnam War veterans upon their return. I read it to the audience and have extracted a portion of that email for you below.

It is from Anne Zimbler, World Airways flight attendant, 1970-73.

“What many of you may not know is how much your cabin crews cared about you. It would have been unprofessional for us to have shown you the tears we held until you deplaned in Vietnam. We worried about you and said silent prayers for your safe return. We cherished our time with you and tried to make you as comfortable as possible. Most flight attendants, from the many airlines that flew military charters during that era, would tell you we truly treasured our military passengers.

“… on behalf of the cabin crews who brought you home, we thank you for your bravery, dignity, and service. We will always remember your faces and the many conversations some of us had with you on those long trips over the Pacific. In our minds, you remain young men who served your country and graced our lives for a moment in time, many years ago, during a difficult period in our shared history.

“You are still, and will always be, our heroes … welcome home.”

To my brothers-in-arms, as I sit here in tears, I echo Anne’s final comment.

Welcome home.

John Stewart is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant and disabled Vietnam War veteran. In 2016, he was inducted into the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame. His columns are sourced from public, government, and private information, and the content is checked for accuracy as best as possible. However, you have the responsibility to verify the contents before taking any related action.

*****

Anne Zimbler recently contributed an article to this website. Read it here: https://cherrieswriter.com/2025/08/16/the-freedom-bird/

Here is the direct link to the article on Citris County Chronicle: https://www.chronicleonline.com/lifestyle/veterans/emotional-speech-honors-vietnam-war-veterans/article_f6d41212-f9ab-538b-92fe-b588f7488cbf.html

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