Vietnam vets ‘are finally getting the recognition they deserve’

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, and it’s also been 50 years since the last American combat troops left Vietnam.

We spoke with a local veteran who worries people have forgotten. After looking, we could not find many events to mark the day.

Just one, and that was at the VA Medical Center. Otherwise, not much happened to honor veterans of the Vietnam War.

Larry Dodson is a Vietnam veteran who says he’s happy he and other veterans are being honored for their sacrifice.

“Our Vietnam veterans are finally getting the recognition they deserve,” he said.

He says he and other veterans were greeted with anything but a “thank you” for their service when they came home.

“We were disrespected,” said Dodson. “It means a lot now to realize that people see us in a different light. See that we were trying to defend the freedoms that our country so richly provides.”

Dodson says he wasn’t ready to share his experiences when he came back, so he held onto them.

“I coped by holding everything in. So I wasn’t coping. And those times were troubling for me,” he said.

But his breakthrough in getting help and becoming more active in the veteran community happened when he saw the traveling wall memorial.

“When I went there for the first time and saw that wall and saw my own reflection in that wall, it made me cry. It brought tears to my eyes. It made me release so many of those pent-up emotions,” said Dodson.

He wants to remind veterans there are resources right here in Augusta to help them.

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