‘All we fought for isn’t a waste’: C.O. veterans gather on National Vietnam War Veterans Day

(Update: Adding video, comments from veterans)

'We know what each of us went through, and that’s what makes it so special with us.'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- In honor of National Vietnam War Veterans Day, Vietnam veterans and other service members across Central Oregon gathered at the Bend Heroes Memorial Tuesday morning and the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch later in the day for a BBQ hosted by the Central Oregon Band of Brothers.

It was a day to appreciate the sacrifices and hardships of those who served in the Vietnam War, a half-century ago.

At the Bend Heroes Memorial, several veterans recited the Pledge of Allegiance and retold their experiences serving in Vietnam and life as they knew it afterwards.

Mike Peariso is a Vietnam vet who served in the Navy for three years.

“We know what each of us went through, and that’s what makes it so special with us," Peariso said. "It changed the way you view life, because you don’t ever know when it’s going to end.'

It was on March 29, 1973 that the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam.

But 49 years ago felt like just yesterday for many of the veterans.

Richard Fleming served in the Army in Vietnam for two years.

“I carry around a mental backpack with the names and the dates of all the guys I knew and when they died, and I think about them all the time," Fleming said.

In recounting their experiences, some veterans said the hardest adjustment was coming home from the war, to a divided country.

“People talked down to you," Peariso said. "'You’re worthless, you’re trash. You should have never went there.'"

Fleming said he was received with much the same reaction.

“It took a long, long time to get over the fact that the country that I fought for and represented was pretty much rejecting the role that the soldiers played -- all of the military," he said.

Gary Bridwell is a Vietnam vet who served for two years in the Army.

"All Vietnam vets came home to kind of a hostile society," Bridwell said. "When I got back from Vietnam, I hid out for a long time, not being able to trust society with the effects that the war had on me. That was probably 20 years of hiding and suppression of thoughts and feelings, and denial of what I've been through."

Peariso shared the lingering effects of his war experience that he and many other veterans face.

“I got sprayed with Agent Orange real bad -- I got Parkinson’s from it," he said. "I’m 100 percent PTSD, and I just found that out.”

Still, he said he will never regret fighting for his country.

“All you fought for over there isn’t a waste," Peariso said.

The founder of the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, Alison Perry, said Vietnam veterans need to feel the support, love and credit they deserve.

"It’s so important for us to create environments where all veterans, but especially our veterans that have suffered so much from war, can experience community together," she said. That camaraderie is priceless."

Through the war experiences that have shaped Peariso's understanding of life, he leaves a word of encouragement to veterans everywhere.

“Enjoy every minute of it now. You try to make it a better life for everybody around you that you deal with.”