Washington, D.C. (WWLP) – 312 Vietnam Veterans will be inducted into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s In Memory Program on June 18, 2016.
According to a news release, Harvey Joseph Gagnon Jr. of Chicopee and Daniel Richard Gogol of Westfield, both from the U.S. Army, were named Memory Inductees. Also inducted, Richard Joseph Grenier of East Brookfield, who was in the U.S. Air Force.
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony on the East Knoll of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The master of ceremonies will be Capt. Denis Faherty.
In Memory Program honors veterans who died as a result of their service in Vietnam, but aren’t eligible for their names to be inscribed on The Wall under Department of Defense guidelines. Instead of an inscription, the names of all the honorees will be read and certificates with their names will be placed at The Wall, which will be collected afterwards by the National Park Service and stored in an archive.
The news release notes that the In Memory Program started in 1999 and more than 2,500 veterans have been honored since. A plaque honoring these veterans, which is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, reads:
“In Memory of the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice.”
