(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Mid-Ohio Valley residents know there are those among us who deserved far better than the treatment they received during the political turmoil of half-a-century ago. Vietnam veterans did not all get the “welcome home” they had earned when they returned from serving their country back then.

But local organizations did their best last week to make amends for that, with Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans ceremonies held in both Parkersburg and Marietta.

“This country would not be what it is today without each and every one of you,” Dwight Ullman, general manager of Sunset Funeral Home and Memory Gardens, said in Parkersburg, as he unveiled the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the National Guard Armory.

Meanwhile, in Marietta, Washington County Veterans Services’ hosted a ceremony that included Jason Nulton and Eva Nguyen Whitfield, who co-authored a non-fiction story about the Vietnam War called “Uncommon Cargo.” It is the story of Nguyen Whitfield’s father, who piloted one of the last planes out of Vietnam to get him and his family out before the opposition took over. The rest of her family made it out. Her father did not.

Nguyen talked about how important it was to get that story right.

In fact, it’s important that we get this all right. We can’t undo what happened 50 years ago, but we can do our best now.

“Regardless of your branch of service, regardless of where you served, and how you served, you served,” Assistant Adjutant General of the West Virginia Army National Guard and Army Brigadier General Murray E. Holt said in Parkersburg. “And we all owe you a debt of gratitude.”

We do. And as important as these ceremonies are, they must never be deemed “enough” for the men and women who served.