National Vietnam War Veterans Day in Minnesota
(ABC 6 News) – Friday, March 29, marks National Vietnam War Veterans Day, and some of those who served in the conflict are working to bring a fellow soldier home.
The Military for the Purple Heart Chapter 7010 is working alongside the Prisoners of War Missing in Actions Riders Association of Rochester to bring Sgt. Allen Lloyd home.
Lloyd, of St. Charles, was killed in action in Laos in 1971.
Despite the lack of official military records of the fighting, the two organizations have received information on the location of his remains.
“We have the coordinates of where his remains are and we are starting a campaign this year to push Congress to have the recovery teams of the United States go to Laos and recover him, where he’s at, where he was killed doing his Green Beret job,” said Harry Kerr, who served in both Vietnam and the Gulf War.
Although efforts are underway to bring Lloyd home, there are still tens of thousands of others still overseas.
“There are 81,000 still. Either prisoners of war or missing in action listed. We know that 41,000of those are at the bottom of the ocean, so let’s bring 40,000, or try and bring the 40,000 of those that remain on land somewhere in the world that served America and bring them home,” said Kerr.
If you would like to help the effort to bring some of those POWS and those who are MIA home, the Rochester VFW Post 1215 will have petitions to Congress that you can sign.