WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Candice Miller (MI-10) today supported a measure in the House of Representatives that expresses support for a “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.” Acknowledging the distasteful and inappropriate treatment veterans originally received upon their return from the war over thirty years ago, the bill seeks to give those same war fighters and great American patriots their own day of recognition.
“One of the saddest episodes in American history was the way we treated our Vietnam Veterans when they returned home from combat,” said Miller. “These brave men and women were heroes, and should have had ticker tape parades when they got off those airplanes all those years ago. Instead they came home to taunts, insults and worse. This resolution seeks to right that terrible wrong.”
Miller’s southeast Michigan congressional district is home to Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 154, the largest group of Vietnam vets in the country. Their president, Pat Daniels, said he hopes a Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans day will help Americans remember past mistakes so as not to repeat them.
“This is long overdue,” said Daniels. “And while we can’t change what happened thirty-five or forty years ago, we just have to make sure it never happens again, and make sure the kids coming home today don’t get the same treatment we did.”
House Resolution 234, which was reported out of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, expresses the sense of the Congress that there should be an official day to celebrate the return of Vietnam Veterans. Miller, whose husband is a Vietnam Veteran, believes that the vets were so mistreated upon their return over three decades ago, that a national day of recognition would seek to redress the wrongs of that era.
“We cannot turn back the clock and give these veterans the welcome home that they deserved in 1975,” said Miller. “But we can step up to the plate and do the right thing today. We can say thank you, and welcome home. They deserved it then, and they deserve it now. This is truly something that is better late than never.”