Members of the Patriot Guard Riders prepare to lay a wreath at the 2024 Vietnam Remembrance Day held in Reno. Many of the Patriot Guard Riders served during the Vietnam War.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
An annual ceremony to remember Vietnam War veterans will be held March 29 at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno with the commanding officer of the U.S. Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Center serving as the event’s keynote speaker.
President Donald Trump signed the Veterans War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 after his predecessor, Barack Obama, proclaimed March 29, 2012, as Vietnam Veterans Day. This year’s ceremony, though, also marks an important time in American history. The last American troops left Saigon (now Ho Chi Ming City) on April 30, 1975.
Although the event begins at 2 p.m., military and outreach organizations will be set up at the student center an hour earlier to hand out information or answer questions. The public is invited this free nonpolitical event. Guests also will see the laying of the wreaths, hearing guest speakers and reflecting on the lives lost during the playing of Taps.
Organizers extend an invitation for veterans from Nevada and eastern California to attend, reflect and mingle with other men and women who served in the military and specifically Southeast Asia.
This year’s theme of the Vietnam Veterans Remembrance Day is “Honor & Sacrifice” and is presented by Vietnam veterans, Gold Star families and other veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The featured speaker is Col. Jackson T. Doan, a 1975 Vietnam War refugee who evacuated the county as an infant.
U.S. Coast Guard veteran J.R. Stafford, who served in Vietnam with the Air Force, and his wife Brigitte began organizing a Vietnam Remembrance Day in 2019. The first remembrance day featured speakers and static displays of memorabilia from the Vietnam War era.
Other guest speakers include Congressman Mark Amodei, an Army veteran who represents District 2; Brig. Gen. D. Rodger “Dan” Waters, the adjutant general for Nevada; retired Nevada Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Michael Peyerl, now TMCC’s vice president for finance; Dr. Spring Melody Myers, the community engagement partnership coordinator for the Veterans Affairs in Reno; and Douglas County resident Jeff Evans, a Gold Star family member who lost three family members in war.
Doan reported to the Mountain Warfare Center northwest of Bridgeport, Calif., as the commanding officer in 2024. He also deployed twice to Iraq and served in Afghanistan’s Upper Gereshk Valley, Helmand Province, in 2010 as the battalion’s executive officer.
Doan joined the Marine Corps and was commission as a second lieutenant in 1997 after completing Officers Candidate School. One year later, he completed the Infantry Officer Course. His civilian education includes a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California, and master’s degrees in business administration and national security.
Stafford said the ceremony continues to grow.
“Last year we partnered with TMCC,” Stafford said. “The school has a strong student veterans’ population.”
Stafford, a big supporter of veterans in Northern Nevada since 2017, joined the Vietnam Veterans of America Sierra Nevada Chapter 989 that year, and was elected chapter president in 2019. He will be stepping down this year after spending six years guiding the organization that remembers the men and women who served in Vietnam and veterans who served before and after the United States’ longest war.
“We as the local chapter have tried to put on a remembrance event,” Stafford said of the yearly ceremony. “We’ve been able to do some wonderful, great things.”
Additionally, the remembrance day recognizes thousands of Nevada veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Never will one group of veterans abandon another,” Stafford said. “We wanted to ensure the young men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and Kosovo are remembered.”
Stafford said the remembrance ceremony also notes their sacrifices as well as the family members who lost a loved one in war.
“In 2018, the student veterans from TMCC partnered with their counterparts from UNLV to honor veterans over the Memorial Day weekend who lost their lives during the Global War on Terrorism,” said Marine Corps veteran and TMCC’s Veteran Services director Felipe Gutierrez De Alba.
Gutierrez and other TMCC veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars partnered with their counterparts from UNLV in May 2018 to honor the veterans who lost their lives during the Global War on Terrorism over the Memorial Day weekend.
Veterans and other volunteers carry the precious cargo of dog tags from Carson City to the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley over Memorial Day weekend to remember the Global War on Terror. Two rucksacks contain almost 7,000 dog tags, each one representing a fallen warrior including 57 Nevadans with their names engraved on them, who have died since 2003.
Gutierrez said 150 more dog tags from the Vietnam War were added to their ruck march in 2023.