On March 29, we remember the living and the dead for veterans and their sacrifices in the Vietnam war. 

The first shots on November 1, 1955, would start a 20-year war between the United States and South Vietnam. This was strongly backed by the Soviet Union and mainland China although the United States did not join until 1965.  

Al Freeze, a 30-year old soldier, received the order to be shipped out after voluntarily joining the military. He became chief at the time started on his first tour to Vietnam on the USS Oriskany Aircraft Carrier.  

Enlisting as a 19-year old, Freeze planned to join the Navy.  

“My goal had been all along to get the experience, training, licensing and everything needed to go work for the airlines,” Freeze said. “Because I saw too many people just let the 20 years in the Navy go by and were ready to get out and were not trained for a job on the outside.” 

After 24 years in the Navy and two six-month tours, Freeze was promoted to Master Chief, the highest rank among enlisted men. His decision not to be promoted to Officer was based on another ten-year commitment to the Navy.  

“When a ship would go up on Yankee Station, which is a position off the coast of Vietnam where the carriers would launch there strikes into North Vietnam, we would operate out of De Nang,” Freeze explained. 

The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 ended US involvement, although troops would not leave until August of that year. North and South Vietnam would continue to fight until the fall of Saigon in 1975,  officially ending the war.  

The United States has come a long way in honoring our Vietnam Veterans. The US National Memorial in Washington DC, known as “The Wall,” was completed in 1982 with 57,983 engraved names of service members who died or remain missing and continues to grow.