The 2024 Vietnam Veterans Remembrance event is Saturday from 2-3:30 p.m. at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) Student Services Building, 7000 Dandini Blvd., in Reno.
Doors open at 1 p.m., and the ceremony is from 2-3:30 p.m.
Vietnam Veterans of America Sierra Nevada chapter 989 sponsors the annual remembrance event. This year’s theme is Reflections, and the veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Gold Star families will conduct a presentation.
The Patriot Guard Riders will place a wreath with the help of veterans.
“We are in the final stages of a tribute to our Vietnam veterans which began on Memorial Day 2012, and it will end on Veterans Day 2025,” said J.R. Stafford, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Sierra Nevada Chapter 989.
Veterans Day 2025 will mark 50 years since the last American troops left Saigon on April 30, 1975.
Stafford said veterans who served before and after the Vietnam War hold a special bond, as do the newest veterans. The ceremony will also honor veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan with a tribute to Gold Star families. His favorite saying incorporates all veterans, but specifically those from Iraq and Afghanistan who join their brothers and sisters from Vietnam: “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another,” Stafford said.
Six days after the remembrance at TMCC, National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29 officially honors the nine million military men and women who served both in Southeast Asia and other duty stations at home and around the world during the 1960s and ‘70s.
As president 12 years ago, Barack Obama proclaimed March 29, 2012, as Vietnam Veterans Day, and his successor, President Donald J. Trump, signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 during his first year in office.
Guest speakers for this year’s event are Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony and Maj. Gen. Ondra Berry, the adjutant general of Nevada.
Anthony also worked as an adjunct faculty member at the Community College of Southern Nevada and as a captain of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He was also chair of the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents and a member of the Nevada Commission on Aging and the National League of Cities Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Berry is the senior uniformed Nevada National Guard officer, and he’s responsible for formulating, developing and coordinating all policies, programs and plans affecting more than 4,700 Nevada Army and Air National Guard personnel. He is also responsible for both the federal and state missions of the Nevada National Guard.
Military and veteran support organizations will be available to answer questions and provide resources.
The 2024 Vietnam Veterans Remembrance is free to the public and is a non-political, non-fundraising event.
For questions, contact [email protected] or call 650-888-1564.
