Today on Memorial Day, May 25, 2015 we honor our military who have died for our country.  The new Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Forever® stamps will be dedicated by the U.S. Postal Service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC today.    Photo upper left: “Medal of Honor: Vietnam War – All three medals on stamps” © 2015 USPS.

The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 1 PM today.  It is being hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (On Twitter @VVMF) (program details are at that link) and the National Park Service (On Twitter @NatlParkService).   It is free and open to the public.  It should be noted that close to a dozen Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients will be included.   

The stamp is recognizing the Medal of Honor, which is our nation’s most prestigious military decoration.    Here is the link to the full press release by the US Postal Service Medal of Honor Recipients to Dedicate Vietnam War Stamps on Memorial Day.   Thank you to Mark Saunders with the U.S. Postal Service for these high-resolution images shown today.  (On Twitter @USPS) All Medal of Honor stamps shown today © 2015 USPS.  

Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Prestige Folio  – “The prestige folio stamp sheet depicts 48 of the more than 50 living Vietnam War recipients (some chose not to have their name and/or photograph included). The folio, which lists the names of the recipients, is modeled after the World War II and Korean War Medal of Honor prestige folio stamp sheets issued in 2013 and 2014 respectively.”

They are offering a Medal of Honor: Vietnam War DCP Keepsake.  “The set also includes three #6 3/4 envelopes, each affixed with one of the three Medal of Honor: Vietnam War stamps – the Army, Navy, or Air Force version – and a First Day of Issue color postmark. The color postmark design shows a red medallion containing the words “Medal of Honor: Vietnam War” surrounded by a gray laurel wreath and topped with five stars. Also included are the official date and location of stamp issuance: May 25, 2015, Washington DC, 20066.”

Other items being offered include the Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Press Sheet and Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Digital Color Postmark.

Both of these quotes shown today are from Memorial Day 2015 Quotes: 20 Sayings To Honor The Armed Forces by Maria Vultaggio  (On Twitter @mariamzzarella) who included them in her respectful article.  She is with the International Business Times (On Twitter @IBTimes) – According to their About Doc the digital news publication reaches over 55 million people every month.

“They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast, And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest.”  — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children” — William Harvard

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982.  It is a 3-acre national memorial in Washington, DC. honoring U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the War.  The memorial includes the names of over 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam Conflict.   The Vietnam War was a protracted conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, beginning in the mid-1950s and ending with the fall of Saigon in the south in 1975.       It has three parts:  the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, and the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall:  On the walls are the names of servicemen classified as KIA (Killed in Action), or MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed. Information about rank, unit, and decorations is not given. The names are listed in chronological order starting with 1959 (I read that it was later discovered that the first casualties were military advisers who were killed by artillery fire in 1957), and moves day by day ending with 1975.

For closing today’s blogpost it seemed appropriate to include from the Medal of Honor: Vietnam War Stamp images this listing of all 258 Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients.  © 2015 USPS.

Today let us pause for a few minutes and reflect on the sacrifices others have made as we are grateful for the freedom we experience daily and honor their memory.

Anchors Aweigh,
Helen