Joint base commemorates 50 years since Vietnam, honors veterans

Did you know that Joint base commemorates 50 years since Vietnam, honors veterans?

Did you know that Joint base commemorates 50 years since Vietnam, honors veterans?

Fort Dix Army Support Activity Commander Col. Shelley L. Balderson comforts a Vietnam veteran at a Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakhurst ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015

http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/local/joint-base-commemorates-years-since-vietnam-honors-veterans/article_a1b140a4-987a-11e5-82ec-574f1e59a13a.html

JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST — Perhaps no one more deeply understands the sacrifices soldiers make than Ronald W. Benzing does.
The retired Army chaplain performed funeral services for 135 comrades in one year alone during the Vietnam War. One was for a soldier — a deacon in civilian life — who died the very day his baby was born.

"Deek," as the young man was known, was just one of scores of fathers to never return home to their children from the jungles of Vietnam.
Benzing remembered him and many others during a commemoration Tuesday at the joint base marking 50 years since the United States became heavily involved in ground combat during the long conflict. More than 100 area Vietnam veterans attended the ceremony, held in the base's Dix Chapel.

The Vietnam War claimed the lives of 58,236 Americans and left more than 1,600 unaccounted for to this day. It also produced 155 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.