In 1988, 65 soldiers lost in the Vietnam War made the journey home. The Berks County natives who died or went missing overseas were carried in spirit by the Last Patrol.
That was the name of the coalition of friends, family and fellow veterans who trekked 150 miles on foot, from Washington D.C. to Reading City Park, to lay the lost to rest.
They hiked for a week straight, sleeping in tents at night. Each ferried a small, steel casket representing the lost, filled with a dog tag and a rubbing of a name from the Vietnam War memorial in Washington.
The names of the soldiers were carved onto City Park’s own Vietnam War memorial. Their caskets were entombed in a crypt that sits below the granite steps at the monument.
Upon those steps is carved the inscription: “To those who left, to those who cried, to those who fought, to those who tried, to those who gave their very lives. We remember.”
Veteran Bernie Bingham remembers walking the Last Patrol. A former president of the Berks chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Bingham takes great strides to ensure the names carved at City Park don’t fade from memory.
He did so decades ago by assisting with the construction of the memorial.
On Wednesday, Bingham, of Boyertown, continued to keep the veterans’ memories alive with a ceremony featuring their names being read aloud.
“We just felt we had to say those names because as Bernie says, when a man’s name is spoken, he is not forgotten,” said Diane Simmons, secretary and treasurer of the nonprofit POW/MIA Forget-Me-Nots, Inc.
The event commemorated the 37th anniversary of the memorial’s dedication and was intended to serve as a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice some Berks veterans made..
A basket was placed at the memorial. It contained 62 red roses for those who died, and three yellow roses for the trio missing.
Veterans and others placed roses at the memorial in City Park for the 65 Berks natives who died or went missing in the Vietnam War. (Courtesy of Diane Simmons)
Simmons said Vietnam veterans are still coping with memories of the often-hostile public reception they received upon coming home.
“Now things have changed, people are welcoming them home,” Simmons said. “They see a veteran and thank them for their service.”
She said that nowadays, Vietnam veterans are often the first to welcome home soldiers returning from overseas.
“They’re the first ones to go to the airport and greet them, have a big celebration, because they never got that,” Simmons said.
She noted that the placement of the Vietnam memorial was chosen for its view of the Pagoda.
“A lot of the guys, when they were coming home on their buses and planes, once they saw the Pagoda, they knew they were home,” Simmons said.
About 18,000 from Berks served in the military during the Vietnam War era, including 4,500 who fought overseas.
Veterans and others placed roses for 65 Berks natives who died or went missing in the Vietnam War. (Courtesy of Diane Simmons)