"It was March 29, 1973, in Saigon. And Master Sgt. Max Beilke was officially designated as the last American combat soldier to leave Vietnam".

When they broke into the programs on television to announce that not only was the war over but the last American was out of harms way, I felt jubilant and extremely happy and I ran outside to blow the horn on my 63 Chevrolet Impala, but I noticed everything was quiet. People were not coming out of their houses. It seemed that no one wanted to celebrate the ending of the war that we quit without finishing.

When our boys went into a battle in Vietnam, no matter what the cost, they won it. It would be hard to find any action in Vietnam that was not appropriately dispatched by our servicemen and women. Anyone that thinks otherwise has been badly misinformed.
So when the war ended, I was not only happy about the fact that I would not have to worry about going to Vietnam and wondering if I would have what it took to be a soldier or not, but the biggest concern I had was that my friends, the people that I grew up with, would not have to go and die. I know that I was being selfish but I could not help it because I had seen the list of names grow every single day and when they started to be names that I knew it was both painful and scary. When it's just a story on a news program it doesn't mean as much as it does when it's Kelly, the young man up the street.

I celebrated the end of this war in Vietnam, then by myself and I celebrated it today because so many of my friends have families and are living wonderful lives because they didn't have to go to the rice paddies of Vietnam and they didn't have to give their lives, because of the brave men and women that served our country so valiantly and bravely, they did what had to be done and it saved so many.

I want to thank all of you who serve our country, whether it's the European countryside or it's in the rice paddies of Asia or the desert sands of the Middle East, from the bottom of my heart. I love you each and every one of you for what you do.

I also would especially like to thank the veterans from Vietnam for a job well done and take this opportunity to tell each and every one of you a heartfelt thank you and welcome home.