Thousands of Washington state residents served in Vietnam. More than 1,100 did not return home. South Vietnamese soldiers fought with American soldiers against communist rule. Vietnamese soldiers who survived the war were persecuted and imprisoned after the conflict just as U.S. prisoners were. Many South Vietnamese veterans remain imprisoned today. Approximately 60,000 Vietnamese-Americans live in Washington.

Lan Phan, now Lan Phan Jones, came to Washington with her family in 1990.  "(After the war), my father, Khanh Phan, was one of the veterans placed into reeducation camps, which were actually concentration camps. He remained there five years," Jones said.

On Memorial Day, American and Vietnamese veterans hold ceremonies at the Washington State Vietnam Veterans Memorial. But there is nothing at that site that honors the South Vietnamese veterans.

"After the war was over, we lost our families, our homes and our country," Jones said.

Jones had an idea. She presented it to the Vietnamese-American community, the majority of whom are South Vietnamese veterans and their families. They decided to propose a plaque for the War Memorial to honor their own veterans and fallen soldiers. It took four years to get the Senate 4025 and House 8021 Joint Memorial proposal to be presented.

With the assistance of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs, American and South Vietnamese veterans met together in November 2009, 34 years after the Vietnam War ended, which started Feb. 28, 1961, and ended when Saigon fell on May 7, 1975. The Vietnamese Veterans Committee of Washington was formed. The committee proposed three flagpoles for the War Memorial at the Capitol to display the U.S., POW-MIA and Washington state flags with a plaque at the base of the flags to honor the fallen South Vietnamese soldiers.

Chaplain Rick Bulman, from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department who also works for Point Man Ministries (veterans helping veterans), was a Marine Corps field radio operator sergeant who fought in the Da Nang area from 1967 to 1968. He said the first two meetings of the veterans were cordial. The Vietnamese showed appreciation and respect to the American veterans.

"When I left Vietnam," Bulman said, "every major offensive we fought in we won. Then consensus from the populace and politicians pulled the plug. After promising to help the South Vietnamese people, we dumped them."

Bulman speaks of how the American vets were and some still are riddled with survivor guilt. "We came home, pretended not to have fought. We were not ashamed but angry and hurt at the dishonorable way we were treated. " He spoke of how the communists disrespected and dishonored the South Vietnamese soldiers; yet, those veterans treat American veterans with respect and appreciation. "We went over and fought a year or two; they fought for years and years and couldn't go back home." Bulman said the veterans plan future meetings, school visits, and shared parade marches on Memorial and Veterans days.

The proposal for the Joint Memorial Partnership died in the Rules Committee and was not read on the floor. But the WDVA will be working with the general administration to advance the memorial. Donations for this can be made to: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Account, Flagpoles, WDVA, P.O. Box 41150, Olympia, WA 98504-1150.

"The American Vietnam veterans are so sad. They are treated with great honor and are heroes to the South Vietnamese people and veterans," Jones said. United and cooperating together, she believes, all of the Vietnam veterans can begin to heal.