La. city to hold event for Vietnam veterans

La. city to hold event for Vietnam veterans
By Claire Taylor - The Daily (Lafayette, La.) Advertiser
Posted : Sunday Mar 11, 2012 16:45:57 EDT
When Lanny Soudelier stepped off the plane in Oakland, Calif., in 1972 wearing his khaki Army uniform, he wasn’t greeted by flag-waving supporters welcoming him home from a war half a world away.

“They were calling us baby killers, saying ‘y’all can’ even win the war,’ ‘y’all lost the war,’ saying we weren’t any good,” he recalled on Friday.

Even when he got back to his hometown of Houma, there wasn’t a big welcoming committee.

“I don’t think many of us had a party,” he said. “There was no party.”

Forty years later, Soudelier and other veterans of the Vietnam War are getting that party.

Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day to honor Acadiana’s Vietnam veterans is planned for 10 a.m. March 31 at Comeaux Recreation Center, 411 W. Bluebird Dr. in Lafayette. It will feature food and live music by StepBack.

“We are doing this to make right something that wasn’t done 40 years ago when we came home,” said Karen Fontenot with Vietnam Veterans of America, Acadiana Chapter No. 141.
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