Groundbreaking Ceremony held for Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial

PAPILLION, Neb. (WOWT) - A groundbreaking ceremony is held for a new Vietnam War memorial in Papillion.

According to the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation (NVVMF), the new memorial will honor 396 Nebraska military personnel who were killed during the Vietnam War. The $4 million project will have an honor wall with names of those killed in action, a restored UH-1 helicopter, and 11 obelisks with the history of the war.

This is the fifth year the U.S. has formally commemorated a day specifically for those who served during the Vietnam War - National Vietnam Veterans Day.

More than a thousand people were on hand as Gov. Pete Ricketts, former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and others broke ceremonial ground for the construction of a new $5 million memorial honoring those who served during the Vietnam War - including 40,000 who live in Nebraska today, and 396 from the state who died there.

“It’s important for us to recognize the sacrifices our Vietnam veterans made,” Ricketts said. “And what this Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial will do is help, really, right the wrong of more than 50 years ago that those veterans did not receive that recognition.”

The memorial will be built adjacent to SumTer Amphitheater in Sarpy County.

“Memorials are important,” Hagel said. “They’re there for history, they’re not for us. They’re for future generations.”

Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved.