Monday is a day meant to honor those who fought in one specific war.
Jupiter resident Bill Arcuri was a Prisoner of War in Vietnam and he used to make plans for National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
"Usually we have a reunion in San Antonio at Randolph Air Force Base but with the pandemic it's been cancelled for two years."
Arcuri was a B-52 pilot, and was shot down in December of 1972, then spent nearly two months held captive.
"I was in the Hanoi Hilton the whole time I was captured."
He says Vietnam veterans deserve their own special day because most of them didn't get a warm welcome when they came home.
"For me, as a former Prisoner of War, I always felt that we the POW's that came home were the only American servicemen who received a welcome home from our country."
Army Veteran Thomas H. Corey agrees. A fellow Palm Beach County resident, he was shot in the neck on January 31, 1968 while serving as a squad leader with the 1st Air Calvalry Division of the U.S. Army.
Corey wound up a quadriplegic, when the bullet permanently damaged his spinal cord. He has returned to Vietnam more than a dozen times with Gold Star children who wanted to see where their fathers spent their last moments of life.
Thomas received the Bronze Star with the V device for Valor, two Purple Hearts, and became the first recipient of the Vietnam Veterans of America’s highest award, the VVA Commendation Medal.
He shares his story of survival with us and discusses the importance of National Vietnam War Veterans Day, along with the Vietnam War 50th Commemoration, which was set into effect by Pres. Obama in 2012 and honors all those who served between November 1, 1955 to May 15, 1975. So it runs through 2025.
Gold Star daughter Lauren Berkson, whose father Capt. Joseph M. Berkson died when his chopper was shot down in Vietnam in 1972, credits people like Corey and Arcuri for helping families like hers get the benefits they need.
She's done plenty of work on her own to be sure that other Gold Star daughters, sons, parents and spouses are honored. Berkson led the charge for a West Palm Beach Gold Star Family Memorial Monument and Gold Star Family Memorial plagues that are posted throughout Palm Beach County.
National Vietnam War Veterans Day was first observed in 2017 by an Act of Congress and it's set for March 29 to honor the day the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. It was also the day Hanoi released the last of its acknowledged prisoners of war.
Photo: Lauren Berkson