UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 649 will hold its 34th annual Veterans Day Ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, 906 Clough Pike, according to a post from Union Township.
All veterans in attendance will be recognized individually by name and branch of service, the township said. The keynote speaker will be Cliff Riley, who served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1969, including two tours in Vietnam, and has been a lifelong advocate for veterans’ rights, according to the post.
The ceremony is held each year at the chapter’s helicopter memorial in the park, a Huey combat helicopter mounted on a pair of 12-foot walls engraved with the names of Clermont County residents killed in the Vietnam War. Union Township trustees approved construction of the memorial on Aug. 18, 1992, and the chapter broke ground the following month. The $25,000 project was paid for through private donations and pledges from area businesses, according to the chapter.
The memorial was dedicated March 21, 1993, and named the Lt. Andrew Haglage Vietnam Veterans Memorial, after a 25-year-old Marine Corps helicopter pilot from Batavia who was killed in Vietnam in 1969.
Chapter 649 was chartered in 1992 and has been named the national Vietnam Veterans of America’s “Chapter of the Year” four times, in 1993, 2007, 2010 and 2011. The chapter’s stated motto is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.” It meets monthly, on the second Thursday at 6:30 p.m., at the Union Township Civic Center, 4350 Aicholtz Road.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Union Township.