FYI - WELCOME HOME VIETNAM VETERANS' PARADE

Hi,

Attached please find two releases detailing America's long-overdue Welcome Home celebration for Vietnam veterans. I have also pasted text versions of the releases into this e-mail for ease of access. The event will be coordinated nationwide between November 10-13, 2005, with the city of Las Vegas acting as host community. Activities tied to Operation Welcome Home will include a variety of reunions, the world's largest Welcome Home parade (synchronized in cities throughout the nation), a beautiful coffee table book celebrating Vietnam veterans and their powerful positive legacy, and much more.The event was inspired by the popular Vietnam memoir Naked In Da Nang, which is prompting Americans to revisit their perception of Vietnam veterans.

Organizers are using the holiday lull to refine all the intricate plans and prepare to hit the ground running after the first of the year. Please feel free to contact any of the organizers via phone or e-mail with questions. Many high profile individuals and organizations will be involved with this event and with the vital mission of finally healing the wounds of the Vietnam era. We ask for your support in building a dynamic and meaningful celebration that transcends politics, gender or age.

Thank you in advance for supporting this compelling cause. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the National Chairmen, Mike Jackson or Tara Dixon-Engel at 937-396-0721 or 937-367-1926 or the Organizational Chairman, Bob Avery at 702-497-9885.

Warmest regards, Sarah Shivler
Welcomehome@nakedindanang.com
Operation Welcome Home Volunteer

Press Releases:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 27, 2004
LAS VEGAS TO HOST HISTORIC WELCOME HOME EVENTNation To Welcome And Celebrate America’s Vietnam Veterans

LAS VEGAS -- Thirty years after the fall of Saigon and the end of America's involvement in Southeast Asia, the veterans of that conflict will finally get the homecoming they were denied by the politics and rancor of another era.

The city of Las Vegas will lead the nation in saying a heartfelt Thank You and Welcome Home to all those who served in Vietnam. This historic event, Operation Welcome Home, will take place in Las Vegas over Veteran's Day weekend 2005.Aviation Nation, the Nellis Air Force Base - Las Vegas Air Show will play a key role in Operation Welcome Home and be the grand finale of this national tribute to our Vietnam veterans. According to Major General Stephen Goldfein, Commander of the Air Warfare Center, Nellis Air Force Base will roll out the red carpet for Vietnam veterans during the weekend of November 12-13, 2005. Aviation Nation, one of America's largest and most popular air shows and a Gold Signature event of the yearlong 2005 Las Vegas Centennial Celebration, expects a Veterans Day weekend crowd of 200,000. Nellis Air Force base in Las Vegas is home of the Air Force Thunderbirds and Operation Red Flag.Pat Christiansen, President of Las Vegas Events, notes that his city is the perfect venue to host Operation Welcome Home. "We are a very patriotic community. We have forged a positive, lasting relationship with nearby Nellis Air Force Base and we are committed to honoring those who protect and defend our country. The concept of celebrating our Vietnam veterans is one that is long overdue," said Christiansen.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, the happiest mayor in the world, says the city is proud and excited to host this national event. "There could be no better time or place for the Welcome Home party than in Las Vegas during our 2005 Centennial Celebration. Las Vegas is proud of our servicemen and women and equally proud of our veterans. We anticipate a 2005 Veterans' Day parade that will go down in the history books.

"Bob Avery, CEO of Las Vegas Aerospace, LLC is the Organizing Chairman for Operation Welcome Home. "We didn't have to debate this one in-depth. It's the right thing to do. This isn't about politics. This is about saying thank you to a generation of young men and women who served their country during very turbulent times. This is about healing." Las Vegas Aerospace is working with Las Vegas to establish North America's new aerospace and defense trade show in the popular destination.And healing was the bottom line for Mike Jackson and Tara Dixon-Engel, authors of Naked In Da Nang, the book that inspired Operation Welcome Home. The two co-authors will serve as National Chairmen."We are so grateful to Las Vegas and Las Vegas Aerospace for stepping up to the plate and making this tremendous gesture," said Jackson, who has served as Executive Director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame since 1992. The retired Air Force officer noted that Naked In Da Nang was written as a tribute to those who served. "Tara and I wanted to personalize the whole Vietnam experience, so the average American could see veterans of Southeast Asia as real people, not as media caricatures. And I wanted something I could hand to my daughters and say 'this is how it really was. We were good guys fighting an unpopular war.' Vietnam veterans are deeply gratified to see America embracing its troops. We are pleased that communities are honoring the young men and women returning home from Afghanistan or Iraq - but I think every Vietnam veteran wonders, what happened to my welcome home?'"

On Dec. 5, the two Naked In Da Nang authors were in Washington, DC to announce the unveiling of Operation Welcome Home on Fox News Weekend Live television. Appearances and interviews are pending with other national electronic media, major print media outlets, Atlanta Vietnam Veteran's Businessmen's Association and many more. The authors have been invited to do a special book signing at the Smithsonian's National Air &Space Museum in Washington DC on April 30, the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Over the next year, the duo will be speaking throughout the country on plans for the event and on the importance of finally healing the scars from Vietnam and moving forward in unity.

Mesquite, Nevada, a resort community seventy miles north of Las Vegas, is the first city to join the Operation Welcome Home tribute. Mesquite will host the traveling Vietnam Wall from February 10-13, 2005. Mayor Bill Nicholes notes that the majority of Mesquite's 3,000 veterans served in Vietnam. "We are proud of these men and women for their service to country. Vietnam veterans are a vital part of every community in America. I hope other communities will make the effort to finally say 'thank you - and welcome home'.

"Plans for specific Las Vegas and Aviation Nation initiatives and activities tied to Operation Welcome Home are currently being developed. Organizers are seeking partnerships with sponsors and supporters and plan to unveil a formal agenda of Welcome Home events after January 1, 2005. For more information about Operation Welcome Home, go to http://www.lasvegasaero.com/.

Organizing ChairmanRobert L. Avery, President &CEO Las Vegas Aerospace, LLC702-497-9885
bavery@lasvegasaero.com

National Chairman
Mike JacksonAuthor, Naked In Da Nang 937-367-1926937-396-0721
welcomehome@nakedindanang.com

National Co-Chairman
Tara Dixon-Engel
Author, Naked In Da Nang937-367-1926937-396-0721
welcomehome@nakedindanang.com

Host Destination
Mary Anne Beaman, Director of Events
Las Vegas Events(702) 260-8605
maryanne@lasvegasevents.com

Aviation Nation Air Show
Bob Jones, Director
Nellis Air Force Base, NV(702) 652-5541
99ABW.IGI@nellis.af.mil

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 27, 2004

Motivational Memoir Inspires Operation Welcome Home

DAYTON, OH -- When Mike Jackson talks about his tour of duty in Vietnam, there is no mistaking the pride in his voice. Although the retired Air Force Lt. Col. had, and continues to have, plenty of issues with the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of Vietnam, he is nonetheless proud that he served his country with honor and commitment, and returned home to lead a productive life. Like so many GIs who went to Southeast Asia, Jackson has long wondered if America would ever make peace with itself regarding “his” war and the contentious social and political debate that surrounded it.

In 2001 the former pilot decided to commit his combat memories to paper. He did so at the urging of one of his employees at the National Aviation Hall of Fame, where Jackson had served as Executive Director since his retirement from the Air Force. Tara Dixon-Engel, a former journalist and director of the facility’s research center, was inspired and intrigued by Jackson’s endless supply of stories about “funny things that happened in Vietnam.”

“Over the years I became pretty good at telling funny stories about my tour of duty. When I got home from Vietnam I wanted to tell people about all the things I’d done and seen. No one was really interested. America was sick of the whole mess. But I ventually discovered that if I told my tales with humor, some people listened. Tara was one of those people and she urged me to write a book; in fact, she offered to write it for me. There wasn’t anyone else standing in line to do so, so I said ‘sure. Give it a shot,’” Jackson recalled.

There ensued a three-year effort to carefully craft Naked In Da Nang, the book that has become the inspiration for America’s “Operation Welcome Home,” slated to take place Veterans’ Day weekend 2005 in Las Vegas and throughout the country.Jackson admits that his book didn’t turn out as he’d first envisioned. He also admits that it’s a good thing.“My vision was for one funny story after the other. Tara wanted to make it something more, something that struck a chord with people and made them laugh and cry. She believed that America wanted and needed to see Vietnam from a different perspective,” he said.
“I had been listening to Mike’s stories for two years and they were just wonderful. They had a universal appeal. Other veterans related to them, but so did everyday folks like me who had never been anywhere near combat. It wasn’t that Mike’s experiences were especially unusual. In fact, quite the opposite. It was just that he had an emotional integrity and a sense of humor that allowed him to connect with people on a variety of levels. The challenge for me was to somehow put all the heart and humor that is Mike Jackson on paper,” the co-author explained.

For Jackson, it was a chance to revisit a time and a place that he had left behind years earlier. It was also a chance to reconnect with many of the men he had served with, most of whom he hadn’t seen since leaving Vietnam in 1972. “It was an amazing experience. The writing process was rewarding. Tara is so much like me that at times we seem to communicate telepathically. She instinctively knew how I would react and could translate that understanding into vivid scenes and images. It was also quite a thrill to talk to guys I hadn’t seen in over three decades. The years just fell away and it was 1972 again,” the pilot recalled. The interaction with his combat buddies and the realization that time was quickly slipping by led Jackson to an epiphany. As he and his co-author sat in a local restaurant discussing the book one afternoon, they hit on the idea for a national Welcome Home celebration. “I was skeptical at first, not sure whether America was ready to put aside decades of political rancor. Tara convinced me that it was the perfect time, especially with the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon in April 2005. We began putting together ideas and preliminary plans, not at all sure how we might eventually implement them,” Jackson said.

Then the duo shared their vision with Bob Avery, President and CEO of Las Vegas Aerospace, the company that develops and promotes the Aviation Nation Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base. Avery presented the idea to Las Vegas and Air Force movers and shakers, who eagerly jumped on board. Jackson and Dixon-Engel were given key roles in the development process and designated National Chairmen of the event.“We were all a bit startled at how quickly and passionately people reacted. Bob warned us that this was going to get real big, real fast and he was definitely right about that,” Dixon-Engel said. “When Mike appeared on Fox News Weekend Live to talk about the book and Operation Welcome Home, we started getting phone calls from all over. Everyone was saying the same thing: ‘It’s about time,’ and ‘how can I help?’ We wrote Naked In Da Nang with an eye toward healing a lot of old wounds. We wanted to create some kind of companion piece to Hal Moore and Joe Galloway’s spectacular ‘We Were Soldiers...’; something that personalized the conflict to the point where you experienced it through the eyes of one soldier or, in this case, one pilot. That our efforts helped generate a national day of Welcome Home for Vietnam vets is humbling beyond words.”The Welcome Home event was spawned by the book’s epilogue titled “We Never Got Our Parade,” in which Jackson explains that Vietnam vets are thrilled when they see America welcoming home soldiers from Gulf War I or Iraq or Afghanistan, but that they cannot help but wish their homecomings had been more positive and supportive.

For Jackson, who flew 210 missions as a "low, slow" Forward Air Controller, the Welcome Home could be perceived as bittersweet or too little, too late. But the author sees nothing but positives. “We've grown as a country and we're in a place now where we can do this and do it with heart and sincerity. I'm proud of my service and proud to participate in this event. I remember leaving Vietnam in 1972, and being advised against wearing my uniform once we landed in San Francisco. To wear it was to invite abuse," Jackson recalled, adding that he elected to wear his uniform, despite a less-than-cordial reception. "Later on, veterans were advised against listing our tours of duty on our resumes. It was a tough time. We wanted to tell our stories and no one really wanted to listen. Now is the perfect time to acknowledge that we served with honor and dignity…and came home to lead normal, productive lives. Operation Welcome Home will help make this happen at last.”

POSTED BY THIS BLOG EDITOR
FOR ALL OF MY BROTHERS & SISTERS
"See You in Las Vegas next Veterans' Day"