Several veterans from all branches of the military showed up Wednesday morning to pay their respects at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Battleship Park.

“It’s a day of reflection and remembrance for all of our Vietnam veterans. As they mentioned how many millions there were that participated in the Vietnam War, and of course over 58,000 that didn’t get to come home,” Chapter Commander Bill Bergman said.

The ceremony is a way to say thank you to those veterans.

“We remember so many of our veterans that suffered hard and the participation of not only the veterans that went to Vietnam but also the veterans that supported the mission,” Bergman said.

And it’s also a way to let them know that their efforts haven’t been forgotten.

“A lot of folks don’t realize how many Vietnam veterans we have. War changes people and like the speaker said today, a lot of those folks came back and were not well received when they got here. We’ve come a long way in caring for our veterans these days,” John Kilpatrick said.

Following the ceremony, the flag was lowered to half-staff.

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