Vietnam veterans honored for their service and sacrifice

Vietnam veterans honored for their service

By Malia Rulon - Gannett News Service
Posted : Monday Apr 19, 2010 20:43:28 EDT

WASHINGTON — Sisters, brothers, wives, daughters, sons, grandchildren, friends and volunteers took turns at a memorial service Monday reading the names of 97 members of the armed forces who died as a result of their service in Vietnam.

Among the names: William Howard Hegge of Cincinnati, who died six years ago of pancreatic cancer at the age of 54. Donald Dwight McCans of Gettysburg, Pa., also died of cancer. He was 60. So did William Black St. John of Hobe Sound, Fla., who was 67.

As family members read aloud the names of their loved ones, many noted the branch of service they were in, their rank and the dates served. Most also tacked on a too-common postscript: Agent Orange.

These service personnel, many of whom died of cancer decades after the war ended, don’t qualify to have their names etched onto the actual Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington.

Under Defense Department guidelines, only men and women who died from wounds suffered in combat zones are eligible. The wall contains 58,261 such names.

But the scars of war stretch far beyond those 58,261 deaths. Each year, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund honors men and women whose noncombat deaths are related to their service, through either emotional suffering caused by their service or complications associated with exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the U.S. military to remove plants and leaves from foliage that provided enemy cover.

Nearly 2,000 veterans have been honored since the annual memorial service began.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/ap_vietnamvets_041910/