The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs next year is joining a network of groups across the U.S. remembering Vietnam veterans and the 50th anniversary of the war.
The agency plans to use the March 29 commemoration ceremony as a springboard to increase its focus on Vietnam veterans next year, Director Nate Todd said.
Todd said he wants to ensure that as many of those veterans as possible are plugged into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and receiving any benefits they earned.
"That's going to be our initiative for the next year," Todd said. "Focusing on that Vietnam-era veteran, as well as female veterans and suicide prevention. I'm optimistic about the status of veterans affairs in Arkansas."
March will be the first time the state VA has participated in the nationwide commemoration, which took off in 2012 after former President Barack Obama proclaimed May 28, 2012, through Nov. 11, 2025, the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.
Furthermore, President Donald Trump this year signed a law designating March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day. On that date in 1973, the last combat troops withdrew from Vietnam and the final prisoners of war returned to American soil.
The state VA is asking all military veterans who served between Nov. 1, 1955, and May 15, 1975, and who wish to participate in the commemoration ceremony to register online at veterans.arkansas.gov before 10 a.m. Jan. 15. Registration can also be completed on paper with a county veterans service officer before noon Jan. 12.
The registration deadline is to accommodate the production of customized lapel pins, which local leaders will present to each veteran.
The state VA estimates there are just more than 80,500 Vietnam veterans living in Arkansas.
"Many are doing well," Todd said. "But some aren't connected to the health services and benefits they're entitled to."
He mentioned one widow who recently recovered $100,000 in back-pay from the federal VA for benefits her husband should have received before his death.
The registration of veterans for the March ceremony should help identify some who may not be receiving everything they earned.
About 86,500 of Arkansas' estimated 225,000 veterans receive medical care through the federal VA -- the fifth-highest proportion in the U.S.
However, R.D. Kinsey, post commander of American Legion Post 74 in North Little Rock, said there's still progress to be made. Kinsey, a Vietnam-era veteran, has received health care through the federal VA for four decades, and he said his experience has been all positive.
"It's true, though, a lot of veterans just don't want to deal with the system," he said.
That's where the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs hopes to step in with its network of veterans service officers, who act as mediators between the federal VA and veterans on claims and appeals.
The state agency over the past two years has expanded and revamped its veterans service officer program, adding district-level service officers in regions throughout the state. It has also encouraged counties to employ service officers.
Steve Gray, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who operated radar during the Vietnam War, said ceremonies like the one being held in March have helped some Vietnam veterans come to terms with the "pathetic" treatment they received when arriving back in the U.S. from the war.
Gray, who previously worked as a veterans liaison for U.S. Sen. John Boozman, returned to Vietnam on a trip earlier this year. While there will always be debate about the merits of the war, Gray said it was worth it to him for the Vietnamese men, women and children who came to the U.S. as refugees* and were freed from the grips of communism by U.S. troops.
"It's gotten kind of blase to say, 'Thanks for your service,'" Gray said. "But it never hurts."
Metro on 12/26/2017
*CORRECTION: When retired Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Gray spoke of Vietnamese people who were freed from communism, he was referring to refugees who came to the United States. A previous version of this article did not convey Gray’s thoughts correctly.