Vietnam vets honored with ceremony in Canonsburg

Vietnam vets honored with ceremony in Canonsburg
Legislators call awards 'overdue'
Thursday, August 19, 2010
By Janice Crompton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

He wasn't born until five years after the last shots were fired in the Vietnam War, but state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, said he thought a formal thank you was "long overdue" for veterans who had been treated as anything but heroes.

"It's hard for me to grasp the politics that were going on at the time and how the vets were treated," said Mr. White, who co-sponsored an awards ceremony honoring Vietnam vets with state Rep. Timothy Solobay, D-Canonsburg.

About 167 local veterans, living and dead, were recognized at last Thursday's ceremony at Canon-McMillan High School.

None of the veterans interviewed for this story had been formally thanked or recognized previously.

Alex Nakoneczny, 60, a former Army corporal, of Houston, said he was shocked by the reception he received when he returned from Vietnam in August 1970.

"I couldn't figure that out," he said, recalling his first steps off a plane in San Francisco, where protesters were gathered. "They called us baby killers."

It's been 40 years since that day, and Mr. Nakoneczny and his contemporaries aren't bitter.

"This is a good thing," he said. "And good things are worth waiting for."

The more than 200 veterans and their families who gathered in the high school auditorium greeted a fellow soldier, Joshua Haines of Cecil, with thundering applause and a standing ovation that lasted 30 seconds.

The 22-year-old Army specialist and 2006 Canon-McMillan graduate recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and was humbled by the recognition, especially because "the Vietnam vets were the first ones we saw when we got off the plane" on the return home, he said.

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