Vietnam Vets Welcomed
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
The welcoming home ceremonies that many St. Landry Parish Vietnam military veterans may have missed when they returned to the United States was celebrated on Saturday by a large crowd that squeezed inside the Veterans Memorial Center.
About 30 former U.S. military members who served during the Vietnam conflict era were pinned during a commemorative ceremony that included proclamations from elected officials at the federal and state levels.
Ronald Crowley, past state commander of the Military Order of The Purple Heart and retired U.S. Army master sergeant Lionel Frank, Sr., presided over the pinning ceremony for parish veterans, whose names were called.
Pat Mason-Guillory, executive director for the St. Landry Parish Veterans Memorial, said the event provided a moment to reflect more clearly on the “small, meaningful tribute for one of the most challenging times in history.”
Guillory pointed out the annual welcome home salute is intended to provide recognition that honored the veterans’ who made their sacrifices with dignity.
Retired U.S. Naval Captain Ray Bias, who earned a Purple Heart when he served as a corpsman attached to a Marine division in Vietnam, was the keynote speaker.
Bias recalled one particular enemy ambush that was particularly intense and resulted in a number of Marine casualties.
The Vietnam war, Bias recalled, was not a popular war with the American public.
Bias made the crowd members laugh as he told them that he joined the Navy, thinking that he would be safer serving aboard a ship.
However Bias, who grew up in the Prairie Ronde community, said he never imagined that his military induction would include attending to the wounded during battlefield situations.
State District Judge Charles Cravins, who also spoke at the event, said that it might be difficult for some to imagine the battlefield situations experienced by those who were embedded in combat situations.
Cravins referred to the experiences the crowd heard during the speech given by Bias.
Research by St. Landry Now.com has identified 19 parish men who have been listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as being killed while they were serving in Vietnam.
Nearly every parish community was touched by the death of a serviceman in Vietnam. Opelousas and Eunice had six soldiers each killed in Vietnam, while Port Barre, Sunset, Washington, Melville and Arnaudville had one each.
Two parish soldiers received the Silver Star for battlefield valor and the Purple Heart, according to research by St. Landry No.com.
The research done by the website shows that 30-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Alton Joseph Zerangue, Jr. of Arnaudville, died on Feb. 13, 1967, received a Silver Star and Purple Heart, when after being wounded twice, he continued to engage a larger force of North Vietnamese Army regulars near the Cambodian border in order to be airlifted from the area.
Marine Lance Corporal Alvin Monday, a 23-year-old Charles Drew High graduate of Eunice, also received a Purple Heart and Silver Star on Sept 9, 1968 when he was killed by small arms fire in Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam.
Monday, who is buried in Honey Bee Cemetery in Eunice, was a member of the Third Marine Division.
