Three from Vietnam
conflict gave their stories
PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW
Dr. Thomas McMicken speaks Monday at the Hometown Heroes ceremony at the Peace River Country Club. Listening to him, from left is A.J. Jackson who served in theU.S. Navy, Pat Huff, an Army veteran and Col. S.L. Frisbie, who emceed the event.
PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ralph Mills told those attending Monday's Hometown Heroes he was the youngest of nine brothers and seven of those boys served in military.
PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW
Rufus Stephens, who served in Vietnam in the Army, told those who attended the Hometown Heroes ceremony that we have much to be thankful for.
PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW
The color guard from Summerlin Academy walks from the floor at Monday's Hometown Heroes ceremony. From the front is Cadet Cpl. Garrett Kirkland, Cadet Sgt. Maj. Jakob Brown, Cadet Cpl. Jordan Jackson and Cadet Cpl. Bryce Mills. These cadets from the school also marched and the American colors at other Veterans Day events last week and over the weekend.
The man who could be the most decorated veteran from Bartow, Rufus Stephens remembers how Vietnam soldiers were not warmly greeted when they came home from fighting, but on Monday those veterans at the Salute Hometown Heroes ceremony – and others who fought in Vietnam – were fondly recalled for the war that started 50 years ago.
And, Stephens and fellow Vietnam veterans Ralph Mills and Dr. Tom McMicken, who spoke at the third Hometown Heroes ceremony at the Peace River Country Club, not only remembered the comrades who fell in battle but wondered aloud whether the ugliness of war will continue and innocent men and women would sacrifice their lives over fights they probably should not have a part in.
