Shared connection between Vietnam Vets and Vet Centers highlighted during Wasilla Vet Center opening

On Wednesday, the Wasilla Vet Center held a ceremony to honor its new location, and also took time to recognize the 50th anniversary ‘Operation Welcome Home’ as a way honor those who served in Vietnam. The recognition and commemoration was authorized by the United States Congress and created to thank and honor Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice.

“Of the generations of veterans we’ve had, there’s no group more special than the Vietnam Veteran generation,” said Senator Dan Sullivan during his remarks at the opening of the Wasilla Vet Center on Wednesday, to a rousing round of applause from the audience.

Senator Sullivan talked about the ‘shameful’ reception that Vietnam Veterans received when they returned from the conflict, amid protests and insults.

“When you think of the World War II, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, so many different generations of veterans, and when they came home, everyone thanked them. When the Vietnam Veterans came home from service that your government asked you to do, you were ridiculed and spit on.”

He went on to say that those same veterans have been among the most resilient veterans.

“Here’s the amazing thing about our Vietnam Veteran generation-think about what kind of bitterness and anger they had after serving their country, and they didn’t take that and become bitter or insular. What they did is they took that and said ‘I’m going to make sure the next generation of veterans doesn’t get that kind of bad treatment. The next generation of veterans is going to be honored, the way they all should be.’”

The Vet Centers that serve veterans all around the United States, such as the one in Wasilla, share a connection to Vietnam Veterans, which made it all the more fitting that both should be honored during the Wasilla Vet Center’s opening.

“We were established in 1979 by Vietnam veterans for Vietnam veterans out of the recognition that they were not coming to the VA for care. But also recognition that they needed a community of support in order to heal after Vietnam,” said Jessica Schiefer, Communications Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“These grassroots Vietnam Vet Centers started popping up across the country, and Congress recognized that and told the VA that something needed to be done with this.”

She said that initially, the Vietnam Vet Centers were thought to be only a temporary organization that could be pulled into the VA, but soon saw the benefit of the Vet Centers remaining a separate entity, with a separate system of records and more easily accessible for the Vietnam Veterans.

Perhaps it was best summed up by Michael Fisher, the Chief Officer of Readjustment Counseling Service, who gave the keynote address, when he thanked the Vietnam Veterans for their service, sacrifice, and their work and commitment to the Vietnam Vet Centers, when he said:

“Not another generation will go without services because of the commitment that we have here.”