LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Hundreds of American Veterans and Vietnamese immigrants gathered for the Tri Ân monument unveiling. Yung Nguyen, a Louisville businessman and Vietnamese immigrant, started gathering support for the project nearly 20 years ago.
On a hill overlooking Veterans Memorial Park, a cannon fired six shots in honor of fallen Vietnamese and American soldiers. Smoke covered the crowd. A choir sang the anthems for both countries. And both flags flew over the monument.
In the crowd, baseball caps with tour years and company assignments joined berets and nón lá—conical hats with lots of shade. But they all joined with one purpose: to honor the lives lost and sacrifices made during the Vietnam War.
Marj Graves, a U.S. Army nurse who volunteered to go to Vietnam, saw those horrors a lot during her last two weeks of duty.
"Dog tags, wedding rings...anything that would help us identify who they were," she said. "Because they were all in total disfigurement and it was horrific."
The traumatic experience held her back from a career in nursing. Those memories, suppressed for decades, resurfaced in the 90s. It culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt, one she shares freely now while helping other veterans struggling with similar thoughts.
Major General Allen Youngman, one of the speakers at the event, had an extended tour in Vietnam towards the end of the war.
"While it took much of America far too long to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of U.S. soldiers who fought in Vietnam, it has taken even longer to recognize that we fought alongside the soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam," he said, acknowledging the larger death toll the southern republic suffered.
At the monument, those numbers are on display. Over 300,000 Vietnamese died, it reads, near the 58,318 record of Americans dead.
Before the war, the U.S. Navy rescued families as they fled the communist north for the south. Pictures of those rescues are preserved at the monument. It's history Nguyen's parents lived through; history he hopes to keep alive.
"We want all those stories to be told to future generations," he said.
It's through stories Graves finds a way to heal from the vicious past.
"We have got to learn to share and be able to talk to people about the experiences," she said, encouraging other veterans to open up.
Nguyen's own past is filled with tribulation. It took a year of hopping around refugee camps before he finally set foot in Louisville on Thanksgiving day in 1981.
"Some of my friends who took the trip with me didn't make it. And just by incredible luck, I got here. The longer that I live in this country, the more appreciation I have for the freedom that we enjoy here," he said.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.