The names of 166 Vietnam War veterans, including eight from New Jersey, will be inducted into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF)’s In Memory Honor Roll for 2015 on June 20 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Local inductees will include Henry Hoffman Jr. of Rumson, who served in the Marine Corps from 1958 to 1982, and Francisco Tony Primiano of Monroe Township, who served in the Marine Corps from 1966-68.
The keynote speaker will be Jim Knotts, CEO of VVMF. The master of ceremonies will be retired Navy Capt. Denis Faherty. The ceremony honors those who died as a result of the Vietnam War, but whose deaths do not fit the Department of Defense’s criteria for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also known as the Wall.
Veterans who suffered from medical issues caused by their service in Vietnam, including exposure to defoliant spray and psychological wounds, are absent from the Wall. Because the VVMF believes that all those who served should be honored, it holds the annual In Memory ceremony at the National Mall, which is attended by friends and family. During the ceremony, the names of all honorees are read aloud, and tributes bearing the honorees’ names are placed at the Wall.
These tributes are later collected by the National Park Service and stored in a permanent archive.
More than 2,000 service members have been inducted into the In Memory Honor Roll. For more information, visit www.vvmf.org/inmemoryprogram.