Louisville ceremony honors Vietnam veterans on 53rd anniversary of troop withdrawal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — As America gets ready to celebrate it's 250th birthday, a group of local war heroes were honored.

The Vietnam Veterans of America-Chapter 454 honored veterans with a ceremony at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Jeffersontown Sunday afternoon.

Sunday, March 29, 2026, marks 53 years since the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, and is National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

The program honored Vietnam veterans as their friends, family, and total strangers showed support for the generation of veterans who pledged "never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."

"When you're a veteran, you have a special feeling for each other," said Vietnam Veteran Sgt. Alan Fried. "You know that what you have gone through and you take that to the grave. It is one of those situations where you can leave the war but the war never leaves you."