12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
I am a new member of Liberty Bell of the West NSDAR, and on Feb. 22, 2016 I received an email from Illinois State DAR outlining a commemorative event on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 to honor our nation's Vietnam Veterans. I asked to be named our portal partner. My first event was to create a joint Proclamation for the Liberty Bell of the West Chapter NSDAR and Randolph County proclaiming March 29, 2016 as Vietnam Veterans Day in Randolph County. My first hurdle was to find the KIA, MIA and POW to honor in the Proclamation.Using the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File 18 names were found showing Randolph County as Home of Record. A pre-event press release was published in the local papers on March 10th and the first call was immediately received that a name was missing. After researching, the name was added and the updated list published. The newspaper received another call with a new missing name. In total 4 additional Randolph County heroes were found
that were not listed in the AAD.archives.gov database with Randolph County as their Home of Record. In addition to press releases, letters were sent to 48 Randolph County churches prior to the event asking their members to join us in the day of remembrance.The Randolph County Board
of Executives and our Services for Veterans Chairperson signed the Proclamation at the County Executive Meeting on March 24, 2016. The Proclamation honors the 22 Randolph County heroes that were killed in the war and pays homage to our living Vietnam Veterans, letting them know they have not been forgotten.For those that did not know the history of the Vietnam War, seeing the list of our 22 hometown boys with the dates they died all falling within such a short time span, from a county of 30,000, is a lesson unto itself in sacrifice. We received multiple emails from people requesting information on how they can send their own thanks to veterans and general thanks to Liberty Bell of the West Chapter NSDAR for putting forth this Proclamation.