LOCAL

Tribute to Vietnam vets Friday

Family members of those killed in action in the Vietnam War and all veterans are invited to attend an unveiling of a “Tribute to New Mexico’s Fallen Vietnam Heroes” display

From Reports
  • Photos of all New Mexico fallen Vietnam veterans will be displayed

Family members of those killed in action in the Vietnam War and all veterans are invited to attend an unveiling of a “Tribute to New Mexico’s Fallen Vietnam Heroes” display inside the Bataan Memorial Building in Santa Fe on Friday, April 28.

The Vietnam Memorial Monument will be unveiled at 9:30 a.m. on Friday at Veterans Park.

The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in the main floor hallway in front of the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services,at 407 Galisteo Street.

Free parking will be available in the South Capitol Parking Garage located just south of the Bataan Memorial Building located on the corner of Manhattan and Galisteo Streets, and in the north parking lot on W. De Vargas Street north of the Bataan Memorial Building.

The display will feature photos of the 398 New Mexicans killed in action during the war. The photos were painstakingly collected by the Vietnam Veterans of America/Northern New Mexico Chapter 996, a non-profit service organization which took the lead in New Mexico in 2009 when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund launched a nationwide call for photos project to gather photographs of the 58,200 American service members killed in action in the Vietnam War.

Four years later, New Mexico became the first state to collect photos of all of its Vietnam War KIA’s. The VVMF, which operates the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial Monument/Wall in Washington, D.C., will feature all collected photos in a digital display at a national Vietnam Veterans Memorial Museum to be built next to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.