Vietnam veterans pay tribute to those still MIA

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)-The Nickelodeon Theater held a free screening Monday night in honor of Veterans Day.

Some Vietnam veterans here in the midlands who fought side by side with some of the thousands still missing in action ,watched a piece of the life they lived to talk about.

“We’re not going to leave them behind no matter how long it takes,”Ron Hagell, Vietnam veteran said.

Leaving no man behind is a mantra military men and women live by, yet 60 years later some families have relatives that left for the Vietnam war and never returned.

It’s a massive issue that thousands of people across this country related to M.I.A’s, people who are missing,” Hagell said. “They never get closure.”

Some veterans try to forget about the war and the way they were treated after sacrificing their lives for out freedom.

“When we came home people called us traders, baby killers, no one welcomed us,” Samuel Brick, a Vietnam veteran said. “When we go out now and see somebody who appreciates our service it means a lot to us, it really does.”

The emotional scars still linger and time doesn’t always heal all wounds. Memories hard to forget.

“We were ambushed,” Tommy Olds, Vietnam veteran said. “I know when we got to the camp, several of the guys that were with us were no longer with us.”

Olds served in 1968 and know of soldiers that are still missing.

“It was so many horrible things that happen and it took so many people,” Olds said. “Throughout the year of being in Vietnam there were many incidents where soldiers would disappear.”

Today there are active search efforts being done to bring military families closure.

“What they’re doing to identify these remains that a lot of them are bones,” Brick said. “They’re taking DNA samples from relatives that they know of.”

“I often think about the families of those that never came home,” Olds said. “We just pray for the families and pray for our country.”