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"Thank you for your service in the Vietnam Conflict. Welcome home."
Those words, spoken four decades after military service during Vietnam, should bring every person with a heart for our country and those who fought for it to tears, particularly when we remember the past.
Soldiers returning from Vietnam were treated with a great deal of disdain born of the anti-war sentiment of the times. Many experienced an unimaginable shame that no other group of soldiers in American history has had to endure.
It should not have ever happened the way that it unfortunately did.
Instead of being greeted with ticker-tape parades and welcome-home ceremonies, many Vietnam veterans would hide their status to avoid being ostracized.
Wreaths Across America wants to repair the damage. The national organization has a mobile education exhibit with two ambassadors who spend time talking about veterans and the impact of war on them, particularly Vietnam.
During a stop at the Montoursville American Legion, ambassadors Stefan Brann and Jennifer Merrill held a pinning ceremony for two local Vietnam veterans.
"Thank you for your service in the Vietnam Conflict," Brann told veterans Michael McMunn and Ben Patz during this event. "Welcome home."
It seems like such a simple statement, but its magnitude is great.
Today, the Sun-Gazette would like to follow the example of Wreaths Across America and extend to every Vietnam veteran in our region a heartfelt, "Welcome home. Thank you for your service."
And to Wreaths Across America, we would like to say, "well done."
This national organization has been around since 1992, placing wreaths on the graves of war veterans each Christmas.
The Lycoming County detachment of Wreaths Across America was formed and first placed wreaths on graves here in December 2016.
In the past five years, it has expanded its list of Lycoming County cemeteries to include those in Antes Fort, Pine Creek, Jersey Shore, Montoursville, the Fairview Cemetery in Montgomery, the Freedom Road Cemetery and the Williamsport Cemetery on Washington Boulevard. The group hopes to expand the project into Muncy and Hughesville cemeteries.