Vietnam War Veterans Day honors those who served on their country

TILTON — Not every American who served during the Vietnam War came home, and not all of those who made it back came home, either. 

“I must confess to you, I still haven’t come home yet. I don’t know why, there’s a deep belonging,” U.S. Air Force veteran Stephen Sayewich said Friday, during a Vietnam War Veterans Day observation at the New Hampshire Veterans Home.

“Maybe, I think, this is the closest I’ve come to being home, so I want to thank all of you residents for making me feel at home.”

Over 100 people gathered at the Veterans Home to commemorate Vietnam War Veterans Day. There’s 152 residents of the home, the majority of whom served in Vietnam, and are representative of every branch. 

Sayewich told the crowd he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968 through 1974, after attending Holy Cross College, and earning his commission as an officer. He was trained in electronics and avionics, and served as a radar maintenance officer and aircraft controller.  

Sayewich said his work in Vietnam wasn’t much different than what modern drone operators do today, except in that era, he needed to work within 250 miles of his target — Hanoi, the erstwhile capital of North Vietnam. He and his comrades knew, at any time, their sites could be overrun.  

Maintaining a top secret clearance took something of him, Sayewich said, and his accomplishments and other actions weighed heavy on his mind.

“First, I come with ghosts. I came from a military family, and I come with a picture of my dad and his crew in a B-24 in World War II,” Sayewich said. “When I saw the flag bearers, and I saw that uniform, I saw my dad. I always wanted to represent my family, it was more than me when I went into the [U.S.] Air Force.” 

Gov. Kelly Ayotte read a declaration acknowledging National Vietnam War Veterans Day, March 29. 

“Here in New Hampshire, we’re a proud state for veterans, you all know that, we’re so proud of you,” Ayotte said. “We have 80,000 veterans here in New Hampshire, and about 30,000 of those veterans served in the Vietnam War.”

“In that war, the Vietnam War, our veterans, when they came home, they were not treated the way that they should be. They were not welcomed home, as we do now, as we should. When our men and women deploy, we welcome them home with open arms, we thank them for their service, their sacrifice, we thank their family members,” she said. “That did not happen for our Vietnam veterans. We can never repay you for that and go back, but what we can tell you is ‘thank you, we appreciate you, welcome home.’”  

Ayotte said she’d visited Vietnam with the late Sen. John McCain. McCain, who served in the U.S. Navy as an aviator, was captured and tortured in Vietnam, in 1967, after his aircraft was shot down. He was held as a prisoner for more than five years. McCain died in 2018. Ayotte formerly served New Hampshire as a U.S. senator, from 2011 to 2017. 

“We went to Hanoi. To be in that place where he was a POW for so long and tortured, and to be able to hear from him, from the heart — he really didn’t talk about it much as a senator, he did his work — to hear the stories as we were driving to Hanoi,” Ayotte said. “You know what he said that I will never forget? The reason he made it through that experience was because of his fellow prisoners of war.” 

Leo Leclerc also served in the U.S. Air Force, and resides at the Veterans Home. He deployed to Vietnam for eight months, and kept B-52 bombers in service, performing maintenance operations. 

Leclerc joined the military at 17 years old, and met his wife three years later. They went on a honeymoon trip to Canada, and upon his return, he received orders to Vietnam.

“In 1960, we didn’t even know where the hell the place was,” Leclerc said. 

“Today, we gather here at the New Hampshire Veterans Home to honor all who served in the Republic of South Vietnam. For those who never made it home, those who came home wounded, and those who carried invisible wounds for the rest of their lives, we remember you and honor you,” he said. “One of the people I didn’t put on my list is the [missing in action], many of them are still not accounted for.”