WASHINGTON (Army News Story, May 26, 2015) -- Eleven of the 50 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, from the Vietnam War, paid their respects Memorial Day to the service men and women, whose names are etched into 247 feet of polished black granite, known the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall.
Of the 2.7 million Service members, who served during one of the longest wars in the country's history, only 258 were awarded the nation's highest award for bravery and selfless courage. More than half that number, died in their efforts to save their brothers-in-arms.
It was a calamity, which cost the lives of 58,307 men and women and left many Families and veterans, who had been in the jungles and skies of Vietnam wondering why such a price.
Four years after the official end of the war in 1975, Jan Scruggs, himself a wounded and decorated Soldier, decided to make certain no one would forget those who served and those who paid the definitive price.
Garnering support from fellow Vietnam War veterans, Scruggs founded and became president of the non-profit Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., or VVMF. In 1979, he conceived the idea to build what is officially the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to serve as a healing vehicle for the national psyche.
After nearly three years and raising close to $9 million, the memorial was constructed from donations and dedicated, Nov. 13, 1982, during a week-long national salute to Vietnam veterans.
Scruggs told the audience gathered at the memorial, May 25, that the VVMF was entering a new phase in its mission to remember those who sacrificed by building an education center near the Wall. It will display the photos and tell the stories of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the war as well as celebrate the values embodied by Service members from all the nation's wars.
Following the invocation by Medal of Honor recipient Gary Beikirch and the presentation of colors, founder and President of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation Diane Carlson Evans, who served in the Army Nurse Corps in Vietnam, praised the 11,000 military women who served during the war. Evans was the driving force for the seven-foot-tall sculpture depicting three women supporting a wounded Soldier. The Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated on Veteran's Day, 1993.
Keynote speaker and Medal of Honor recipient Jack Jacobs said he still thinks about the same things every day - "My fellow Soldiers, who died, and all the Americans in previous wars, who gave their lives to be free."
"This medal is about men and women, who value something so strongly, they'd be willing to die for it, and they'd be willing to defend our country for it, and so they put on the uniform" said Beikirch, who was serving as a Special Forces medic when he was cited for his Medal of Honor actions in 1970.
"I just did what I had to do until I collapsed and then I was medevac'd out, but most of the recipients if you were to ask them what they did would say, I just did what I was trained to do, I did what the guy next to me would have done and in many cases the guy next to me did do," he said.
Following the ceremony, a newly commissioned second lieutenant asked Beikirch for his thoughts on leadership. Beikirch then relayed the story about how he was asked to speak on the subject at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and he thought, are you sure you have the right guy, I was lucky to make E-5 and I made it a couple of times, so what could I talk about leadership?
"Then I thought, who better to ask about leadership than someone who has to follow, and I followed some great leaders that I would die for and I followed some others that I wouldn't follow to the store.
"One of the first things that I learned about leadership and one of the things I always share is that if you want to be a leader, you'll never truly lead until you learn to serve and you'll never truly serve until you learn that there's something more important than yourself," he said.
In 2013, the U.S. Postal Service, or USPS, issued its first folio of Medal of Honor stamps for recipients from World War II. In 2014, it followed up with a folio recognizing recipients from the Korean War. This year, USPS and the 11 Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients dedicated its latest folio at the Wall - Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Forever.
Other than the inscription, the three stamps are identical to those issued from World War II and the Korean War - the Army version, Air Force version and the Navy version, which also serves for the Marine Corps and Coast Guard. While the medals are variations of a five-point star, the light blue ribbon with stars is uniform across the services.
"The postal families of more than 600,000 employees salute the 2.7 million Americans, who served in Vietnam," said Postal Service Chief Operating Officer David Williams. "We stand in awe of the 258 Medal of Honor recipients, who distinguished themselves through unfathomable circumstances - especially the six of 10 who received our nation's highest recognition of valor posthumously."
"This is a wonderful thing, [I'm] very appreciative of the Postal Service for doing this," said retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, a dust-off medevac pilot, who served 2,000 combat missions and evacuated more than 5,000 wounded during his two tours in South Vietnam. "We wear this medal to represent all those, who were with us and who did things far greater than we did, but no one saw it."
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