Hillsborough County Marks Vietnam War Veterans Day With Saturday Event at Tampa Memorial Park

Hillsborough County will hold a tribute for local veterans at Veterans Memorial Park in Tampa on Saturday, a day before National Vietnam War Veterans Day on Sunday. The event is meant to honor and thank those who served, including many who were never welcomed home as they should have been.

Activities begin at 8 a.m. and run into the afternoon. The schedule includes a working-dog demonstration, food and a classic-car cruise.

For many who fought in Vietnam, the return home came without any expression of gratitude. Instead, the source material notes, numerous veterans still carry a chip on their shoulder decades later.

On Friday, Tampa Bay 28 reporter Blake Phillips spent time at the park with two local Vietnam veterans, Herman Rainey and Mike O'Dell. The park contains a Vietnam War memorial both inside its museum and outside on the lawn.

For Rainey, memories of his service remain in his mind and in a photo album. Flipping through it, he pointed to pictures of himself crossing a footbridge, holding a gun and preparing to return home. His time in the war, like that of many others who served, carried a lasting cost.

"We stayed in our own little world, you know, we didn't get out and socialize," Rainey said.

O'Dell said the treatment veterans received after the war was wrong. "They shouldn't have been treated the way they were treated, and you know now we're getting thanked for being there and doing what we did for our country, but long overdue," he said.

The park gives Rainey, O'Dell and other veterans a place where they can feel that appreciation, even though it cannot make up for the years that were lost. O'Dell said the sincerity matters to him. "It's nice to have people that say thank you and mean it and not just in passing," he said.