Curtis McLachlan’s Vietnam War Memorial Museum provided a living history as part of the 2024 Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, known as ‘The Moving Wall,’ which was on display in Minden during the 2024 Memorial Day weekend.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
With the last helicopter evacuations flying out of Saigon, South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, and the fall of the capital and country, that day marked the end of a long war that began in the 1950s.
Another reminder of the war occurred in 2017 when President Donald Trump signed the Vietnam Veterans War Recognition Act after President Barack Obama proclaimed March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day.
The Vietnam Veterans Remembrance Day ceremony, themed “Honor & Sacrifice,” will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at Truckee Meadows Community college north of Reno. The Sierra Nevada chapter 989 of the Vietnam Veterans of America sponsors the annual remembrance. Doors open at 1 p.m. as representatives of veterans and military organizations will set up tables.
Other events are planned at Fallon and Silver Springs. The Fallon program begins at 11 a.m. in the courtyard behind City Hall and Mayor Ken Tedford will deliver remarks. The Churchill County High School Junior ROTC will present the colors.
The Silver Springs ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at the Veterans Healing Camp on U.S. Highway 50.
U.S. Marines disembark from a CH-53 ‘Jolly Green Giant’ to restore order at the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the final evacuation on April 29, 1975. AP FileThe Vietnam War claimed more than 55,000 American lives, including 151 men and women from Nevada.
The war’s end is especially meaningful for this year’s keynote speaker at TMCC, the commander of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center. In 1975, Col. Jackson Doan was an infant when his family was among others assembling on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon waiting for a helicopter to evacuate them.
Other guest speakers include U.S. Rep. 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; 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 relatives in war.
Doan, who was 2 years old at the time, said his parents rushed their three children to the U.S. embassy to leave Saigon. The helicopter took the family to a cargo ship off the coast that eventually sailed to Camp Orote Point in Guam.
“We had an opportunity to migrate to the United States,” said Doan, who became commander of the MWTC in 2024.
After staying in Guam four months, the family traveled to Hawaii and then to a refugee camp (Camp Talega) within the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, 38 miles north of San Diego.
“We then stayed there for 90 days,” Doan said, remembering the long process for his family to become U.S. citizens. “We applied when I was going to junior high school, and I became a citizen my last year in high school.”
The thought of enlisting in the military wasn’t on Doan’s radar.
“I didn’t want anything to do with the military because I was around it all the time,” Doan said, but noting how his views of enlisting began to change. “When I graduated from (University of Southern California), I had a better perspective and maturity level to ascertain coming to America to become a citizen and providing for my family and myself.
“At some point, it was a matter of giving back to the military for what they provided for us. An Asian family coming here with nothing. We were very poor.”
Doan joined the Marine Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1997 after completing Officers Candidate School. One year later, he completed the Infantry Officer Course.
He said his mother was nervous and sick at her stomach, characteristics displayed by mothers when their children could be in harm’s way.
While with the Marines, Doan deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served in Helmand province and then to Kabul, the country’s capital.
Additionally, VVA 989 President J.R. Stafford, who is a Vietnam War veteran, said the remembrance day will recognize thousands of Nevada veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another recognition is planned for Memorial Day weekend to remember the Global War on Terror.
“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.”
Additional awareness for those veterans occurred seven years ago with a ruck march bridging northern with southern Nevada.
“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.
Veterans and other volunteers will carry dog tags of those who died in those two wars from Carson City to the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley over Memorial Day weekend. Two rucksacks contain almost 7,000 dog tags, each one representing a fallen warrior, include 57 Nevadans who have died since 2003.
Gutierrez said 150 more dog tags from the Vietnam War were added to their ruck march in 2023.
IN MEMORIAM
The fallen Nevada Vietnam veterans include seven Carson City residents: Sgt. Daniel L. Ackerman, Petty Officer 3 Michael A. Bodamer, Cpl. David. L. Collins, Spec. 4 Danny L. Smothers, Lance Cpl. Keith D. Taylor, Cmdr. Frederick H. Whittemore and Cpl. James R. Willis. Fallon residents include Spec. 4 Mahlon R. Arnett, Pfc. Michael D. Blea, Sgt. 1st Class Billy D. Hill, Spec. 4 Willard V. Johnson, Spec. 4 Fredrick E. Larsen, Capt. Eddie Molino, Jr., Spec. 4 Ronald R. Rodrigues and Spec. 5 William R. Rogne. Other area veterans include Cpl. Dale Eugene Hutchins, Douglas County, and Sgt. Danny Gerald Studdard, Virginia City.