Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'

Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'

To Those Affected By 'Agent Orange'

BY BILL JONES

STAFF WRITER

Two Vietnam War veterans were honored at the St. James Community Center on Friday night with the Order of the Silver Rose, a medal that recognizes veterans who have developed medical problems as the result of exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.

Friday night's recipients were retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dale Neas, of Old Newport Road, Greeneville, and the late U.S. Army and Tennessee Army national Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ledmond "Huck" Huckleby of Silvan Circle, Greeneville.

In making the medal presentations, Bill Thomason, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant who lives in Parrottsville and coordinates the Order of the Silver Rose program for Northeast Tennessee, noted that Vietnam veterans are dying at a rate of about 290 each day, many from the effects of exposure to Agency Orange, a herbicide that was sprayed from the air onto jungle vegetation to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese of cover.
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