Local veterans mark Vietnam War Veterans Day more than 60 years later

TAMPA, Fla. - It has been called one of the most painful chapters in American history, but on this Vietnam War Veterans Day, there is one story Linda Pugsley wants to live on.

"That our soldiers were some of the finest threads of America’s cloth," she said. 

Pugsley served during Vietnam as a flight nurse, deployed overseas twice. The first, from 1968-1969, and then again in 1972. 

"I had the skills, I was a trauma nurse, so I said, I’ve got to go," she said. "The wounds were devastating. One guy had both legs gone, and he said to me, take care of my buddy, he’s worse off than me – and he had both legs and an arm gone."

Courtesy of Linda Pugsley

Just as horrific as the wounds, she said, was the treatment of the veterans when they returned home.

"To come back and have these guys who gave so much be spit on, and be called baby killers, and drug addicts," she said. "That was so wrong."

Courtesy of Linda Pugsley

Ronald Rook, a mortarman with the U.S. Marines felt all of that. 

"Not to be welcomed home, I felt like I was a criminal, and I wasn’t," Rook said. 

He can remember when he returned to the U.S., the war protestors were so upset, they had to arrive in secret.

"There was violence in the Los Angeles airport," he said. "They had to fly the Marines into another location close by. And we had to go and change and get civilian clothes – Here I am 13 months in Vietnam, and I’m worried about getting shot by my own people. You go home, and no one welcomes you."

But time has offered most… a new perspective – for Rook, it’s provided pride in wearing his Vietnam Veterans hat. 

"Everywhere I go with this Vietnam hat people thank me for my service," he said. 

And our time to do so, will eventually run out. Jim Fletcher, the president of Tampa’s Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, said anywhere from 400-600 Vietnam veterans are dying daily.

"So as we talk about the lost generation, the great generation, it won’t be long before it’s the Lost, Vietnam Generation," Fletcher said.