Ladies and gentlemen, my is jim byron and i have the honor of being the president and ceo of the Richard Nixon foundation, and i want to welcome you to the Richard Nixon library on this very wet day today. Thank you. Today, 50 years after the end of combat operations by American Forces in vietnam, we recognize Vietnam Veterans and the service that they provide to our country in uniform in the 1960s and seventies. And then after coming home, members of their community who went on to be forces for good and. And additionally we remember and pay tribute today to those who never came home or remain missing in action. Youll see throughout todays program, traditional elements of military ceremony represented by different branches of the United States military. And to begin id like to ask United StatesArmy ChaplainWilliam Williams to the invocation. Chaplain williams served in the army for 27 years in both infantry as enlisted man and as a member of the chaplain corps. He is currently the family life resource manager, deputy garrison chaplain advisor, low density faith Group Leaders and a director of religious education. He has been deployed on eight combat tours. He served as a battalion brigade, detach agent and emcee oam chaplain. Chaplain williams. Friends join me in your faith tradition as i pray in mine. Let us pray. Almighty god, i ask that you bless this sermon and all those that are present today. Special blessings be upon Vietnam Veterans and their families who are present today and those who are not. As we remember, their sacrifice, this legacy and their service that pave the way for our armed forces today. Behalf of grateful nation allow us always to place the mission first. Never accept defeat, never quit, never leave your falling comfort and your name. We pray. Amen. Thank you, chaplain. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please now rise for the presentation of the colors in the national anthem. But please. See. Can you see me by dawns early light . What so proudly we held at. Thats why its less mean whose bluster and bright just who the painful side or play possibly was was so calm endless. And ruckus. Its a good the bones. Men gay proved to light that our flag was still there. Oh, say,s that song speak angered then ned with. Or the land of and the hum of the bridge they. Oh their. Rain we. Ready got. Rain back. I. You may be seated. Please join me in thanking the 12th marine corps district guard and Navy Vocalist taylor johns for that beautiful of the national anthem. I also want to thank president s, Council Members and our associates, members of the Richard Nixon foundation, who are here with us today whose support made todays commemoration possible and actually made possible the new monument that were going to be dedicating shortly. Id like to welcome don waggoner, chairman of the board supervisors of orange county. Thank you for being here. As well as yorba linda gene hernandez. Councilwoman janice lim. And councilman Carlos Rodriguez rodriguez. Im told that this morning you all now are participate in and attending. What is the second largest vietnam day ceremony in the United States . Absolutely. And only second to the gathering at the National Park service, Vietnam Veterans monument on the national. So thats quite a distinction. On march 29th, 1973, 50 years ago today, the last american combat troops left vietnam. That evening, president nixon, the American People from the oval office saying the day that we have all worked and prayed for has finally come he would go on to say, for the first time in 12 years, no military forces are in vietnam. All of our american p. O. W. S are on their way home. Vietnam, veterans day became a national day of observance. Six years ago when President Donald Trump signed the vietnam war. Veterans act of 2017. However, its origins date to a proclamation issued by president on february 26th, 1974. Proclamation 4270 states as a nation. We have acknowledged our deep respect and admiration by setting aside march 29, 1974, as Vietnam Veterans day to remember the honorable peace america achieved, which came through great sacrifice. I am disappointed, of course, about our unfortunate patterns of late, and especially today, as this mornings rain is forced, the ceremony endures. But rain or shine, theres no place like the Nixon Library. And were going to dedicate and unveil a new monument today celebrating americas Vietnam Veterans. This monument was brought to life by an extruding, early, helpful and insightful design committee, which consisted of ed brundage tony cordero, joe lopez, phil millard, william mimi aga, chris norton, ike and frank orozco. Its its right. Tony cordero serves as president of the sons and daughters in touch. He is a gold star son. Im going to ask tony now to say some words on behalf of the design committee. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And to all of you Vietnam Veterans today it is appropriate say happy Vietnam Veterans day. So graduation speech. As jim mentioned my name is tony cordero. I am a gold star son and lost my dad in vietnam 1965. What you may wonder is how did an air force brat get mixed up with a bunch of marines in trying to come up with an idea to help run design statue but to all of you marines from vietnam it was a wonderful opportunity and what i wanted to do just quickly is acknowledge that we as a nation are 11 years into the vietnam commemoration, the 50th anniversary of the end of the vietnam war. It is an american tradition that at the 50th and 100th anniversary is at the end of all of our wars that we as a nation paused. Remember those who bore the battle and those who were left without a loved one because of that. And so for the next two years, the vietnam commemoration at department of Defense Program will continue to commemorate vietnam war and the 50th anniversary of the end of it. So thats one of the reasons that were here and. Of course, thanks to president nixon and to president when it was initiated in 2012, President Trump declaring today to be this day and the Current Administration for continuing that support today is National Vietnam war veterans day all across the country. Give yourselves round of applause. The the remembrance and the acknowledge the thanks that our country gives is to everyone. Who served during the vietnam war and to the families who cared for their loved ones when they returned and for the families who were left to ask questions, what happened . Why did my loved one not come home . Why there a funeral . Or why are they still unaccounted for . So what id like to do now is to ask if there are other gold star families in the audience, gold star families whose loved ones were lost in the war or remain unaccounted for. Would you please stand so we can give you a round of applause. I ill tell you, this is the most dollar and 0. 50 that you could ever ask and imagine. Yeah, you can buy. The gold star lapel button on the internet for a dollar and 0. 50, but it cost the life and it is extremely difficult. Its not like a broken arm or having covid. You get over that you dont ever get over this. So thank you very much to all of you for being here. We also want to ask later, were going to recognize you by service, but right now. Im going to ask all of you in the audience, the Vietnam Veterans, all of you who served during the vietnam war, to please stand, allow to give you our thanks and acknowledgment on vietnam war, veterans day. So please all vietnam, please stand. From this Vantage Point that that was incredible. It was absolutely. To see all of you here and to brave the elements to, be here. Thank you all for doing that. Ron pekar is as an artist, a sculptor, a painter, a visionary a creative imagineer, i see that with all due to the good friends of the walt disney and when, the good friends of the nixon and the Nixon Foundation asked me about creating statue to honor all Vietnam Veterans, and that they had identified ron as the designer. This they needed some support. The decision had been made that the statue you would be of a marine a combat on patrol in vietnam. But they needed to make sure that it was accurate. They wanted to make sure that it was spot on down to the most minute detail. And i just happened to know a bunch of guys who live in orange county. Theyre marines and they are a band of brothers. So i said, ill tell you what i can do. Lets put together a little focus and bring these guys together at the library and they can tell you what they think and those of you who know marines know that you shut them up, right . These talked and talked and talked. And they had kinds of ideas and insights and suggestions and what ultimately see is the product of their experience and, rons creativity. And its absolutely glorious statue, but again, we brought these guys here to the library. They shared information during that meeting and. Then they shared more information afterwards. And that led to the creation of the statue. Ron rons work is known all over United States and points around the world. He recently completed a project for the 100th anniversary of the rose bowl stadium, pasadena. He also something near and dear to my heart is the sculpture. The statue of traveler on the university of Southern California campus. So those of you that are familiar with that very good fight on. This i couldnt let that pass, but its a glorious statue statue and runs the designer, the sculptor, the artist behind the statue that will be unveiled today. So without ado, ladies and gentlemen, i wanted to read to you ron pekar. Because you know real well. Im ron tucker. After all that that. You know, im so happy to be here, but im not happy because of me im b im happy because i can see you all. I am so appreciative of you. You have no idea. And especially my committee. You know, this is a statue that is difficult, im going to put it that way, because there are so many details about it. And i didnt know these details. And the fellows helped me through the whole thing with two things. First, their inspiration is is magnet and how i enjoyed meeting them and hearing them. The second thing is they gave me some inspiration of what to do, how to do it, and then a lot of other people did too. I am grateful. What i can say, as say two other three other things. Things one, i maybe already said it was tough. It was a difficult. Sculpture, job. Second, i had help from a several people and i want to just thank you, ed brundage. He is the person that guided me through this. And, of course, he was there and knowing that was very, very beneficial to me. Third, i am. Curious about how all this took place. It was like a an event that came about on its own and. It was very inspirational to me to because the whole situation helped me along to get to point where were here right now. And we have a statue. I am ready to talk about. Im going to start the. Im going to quickly go from top to the helmet. Well, soldiers wear helmets. Buthis e was very special because i found out theres a rubber band that around the bottom rim and everyone put kinds of things in it. But the one that i have in there is, bug juice and the bug jce course is there because it was in vietnam, which was, as everybody told me, 110 to 120 degrees. Every single day. There was never one that went under 110 degrees. I positive it. That oak and as as the as the helmet got put on and i well first of all when i sculpted it i didnt sculpt face with the helmet on. I took the helmet off so i could get to the details. And i could just say one thing about the face. I did the face. Till i thought it was right. And how it came about. It is a made up face, but i had a lot of help, a lot of pictures and a lot of research, and it just right to me. The bandolier. And you can begin, see a little bit of some of the details. Its going to be there as go over and look at it. And i hope will and i hope maybe we a couple of raindrops to go away so you can do that. It is a bandolier that comes across the shoulder and wraps around the side of the body and it carries magazines of bullets. And it is a very symbolic thing to. Of course, thats what all of the people out in the bush as it was, had to have as many as possible. Another funny thing about the details on this, i found the canteens and the other things, specially the canteens were important because of course we were in heat and and as other soldiers have found that was the been in cold it was always curious about the diversity of our armed forces the boots these are jungle they are when i told me you could get water in them. I thought no world that quick kind of boots those well they were goingo t youre going to get water in your boots no matter what. And so it might as well come through and might as well make them easier to clean, maybe but they are very rugged and worked. And of course, they didnt all that great. And the ones on the statue dont look all that great and you will see when you look at hes running through mud in a rice paddy which is a pretty typical thing and so head to toe helmet, bandolier boots and all the other wrinkles and all the other form arms in the uniform are there. Notice it is not a really uniform. Its a wet uniform. And notice also that theres all kinds of stuff hanging all over the place. I had a chance one time to put all of this stuff on me. Now, as you can see, im not that stable. And the other thing is. Mm, yeah. Okay. And other thing is im a small and this stuff just it, it just enveloped me and so i had a chance really get a feel for what the fellers really went through. And it was plenty. I thank you so much for everything. Well, we couldnt be more pleased with how this statue turned out and how serves as such a meaningful centerpiece to this beautiful new permanent right here at the Nixon Library and wasnt ron pekar the right man for the job. We had planned to . Have you all outside and at this point, pull curtain off of the new monument. But thats so what i will say is that would encourage all of you to go see this statue and to visit this monument. Its right next to marine one on the grounds of the Nixon Library. Actually, sometimes it was called army one because for those of you that that know this probably better than me until 1976 that the marine Helicopter Squadron was or the president s Helicopter Squadron was exclusively operated by by the marines. So definitely go see this new beautiful new statue at this wonderful monument next to marine one. As i mentioned earlier, President Trump signed national Vietnam Veterans day into law and. His secretary of Veterans Affairs was robert, who served from 2018 to 2021. The secretary affairs is a cabinet level position and is charged with properly Veterans Benefits and health care and administering our National Veterans memorials and cemeteries prior to serving in the cabinet, secretary wilkie was, undersecretary of defense personnel and readiness. The principal advisor to the secretary and. Deputy secretary of defense for total force management during. The George W Bush administration. Wilkie served both robert gates, Donald Rumsfeld as assistant secretary of defense from 2005 to 2009 and was the youngest Senior Leader in the Department Prior to his first pentagon tour. He was special assistant the president for National Security affairs and a senior director of the National Security council under dr. Condoleezza rice. He has extensive experience in congress as well, including as a Senior Advisor to senator tom tillis, as well as counsel and advisor on interNational Security affairs to Senate Leader trent lott. He is son of an Army Artillery commander, and he spent his youth at fort bragg. He is a reserve officer in the United States air force reserve and holds the rank of colonel prior to joining the air force, served in the United States navy reserve with the joint forces intelligence, Naval Special warfare two in the office of naval intelligence. He is a graduate of the college of Naval Command and staff air command staff college, the United States army, war college and the joint forces college. It is my distinct pleasure to welcome secretary wilkie back to the Nixon Library today to help us this monument. Ladies and gentlemen, i cannot tell you what a singular it is to be here at the Nixon Library and ive spent a great deal of studying president nixon, and i know all of you remember that he was a stone cold football. Not only playing at whittier, but when i was a little boy, he was constantly provid