"CalVet is privileged to honor our Vietnam Veterans who died in service to our country," said CalVet Acting Secretary Debbie Endsley. "Sunday's poignant ceremony provides our state an opportunity to display our everlasting gratitude."
Among the 31 additional names are 10 California Veterans already engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the District of Columbia. The remaining 21 names are California Veterans who died aboard the USS Frank E. Evans when the destroyer sank in the South China Sea on June 3, 1969.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Honor Committee was created when Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed Assembly Bill 287 into law on September 6, 2013. The Committee is tasked with compiling a list of names of Vietnam Veterans from California to be added to the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Committee is also tasked with including the names of California Veterans who later died as a result of illness or injuries, including physical or mental injuries documented by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or licensed medical professionals, that can reasonably be assumed to have resulted from military service in the Vietnam War. Under the provisions of the law, written by Assemblymember Jim Frazier, Jr., the Committee must compile a list of names to be added to the memorial by November 1 of each year. The unveiling occurs March 29, the day before "Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day" events scheduled for March 30.
For more information, including each Veteran's name and home town, please visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Honor Committee web page at www.calvet.ca.gov/Vietnam.
