Pallone: Senate misses the boat to honor Pa. Vietnam veterans

Senate inaction kills Pallone bill designating ‘Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day’
 
HARRISBURG, Oct. 15 – State Rep. John Pallone is very disappointed that the state Senate has ended its legislative session without passing his bill designating March 30 of every year as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” in Pennsylvania.
 
“Pennsylvania has missed the boat to join in a national movement to give our Vietnam veterans one special day a year where their service and sacrifices to this country are recognized and honored,” said Pallone, D-Westmoreland/Armstrong. “While I may be disappointed, it’s the Pennsylvania Vietnam veterans who are truly hurt by the Senate’s inaction on this bill.”
 
Pallone said that with the unanimous House passage of his H.B. 2357 in May, Pennsylvania was on its way to joining 15 other states that have a “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans” day. 
 
“The Vietnam War was controversial and our returning soldiers did not receive the hero’s welcome home that they deserved,” said Pallone. “This bill would have helped to heal the emotional wounds of the war for Pennsylvania servicemen and women.”
 
Pallone crafted the legislation after Dennis Gianotti, a Vietnam veteran from New Kensington, talked with him about the national movement to designate March 30 as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.”
 
The Vietnam War was fought from 1961-75 with more than 58,000 members of the U.S Armed Forces killed; over 3,400 of them Pennsylvanians. It was March 29, 1973, that the last remaining troops of the U.S Armed Forces withdrew from the Vietnam theatre.
 
The states that have adopted “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” resolutions are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Carolina.

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