Vietnam War Veterans Day Welcome Home Ceremony
The National Veterans Memorial and Museum (NVMM) is proud to commemorate National Vietnam War Veterans Day with its annual “Welcome Home” Ceremony, live from our Great Hall on Saturday, March 28, at 10 a.m. Our annual ceremony opens with a moving and memorable procession of all Vietnam War Veterans in attendance, who are welcomed home to thunderous applause from the greater community for their service in a powerful display of gratitude.
We will be joined by Wil Haygood and Matthew Modine – two world-class storytellers in their own mediums – together in a moderated conversation about Veterans and the importance of capturing their stories. A book signing with Wil Haygood will follow the program. Admission is free, but tickets are required.
If you cannot join us in person for this powerful ceremony, please watch the event live here.
Wil Haygood is an American journalist and author who has written ten nonfiction books. His chronicle of White House butler Eugene Allen was adapted into the film, THE BUTLER, which starred Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker and was directed by Lee Daniels. Haygood – who traveled into several war zones as a journalist – is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, as well as a professor at Miami University (Ohio). Among his many honors are the Scribes Book Award, the Deems-Taylor Book Award, the Ella Baker Award – named after the Mississippi civil rights activist – and the Freedom Summer of 1964 Award.
Matthew Modine may be best known for his role as Private/Sergeant J.T. “Joker” Davis, the central character of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket. He shared the Venice Film Festival‘s Volpi Cup for Best Actor as part of the ensemble cast of Robert Altman film Streamers (1983). He went on to play lead roles in several high-profile films throughout the 1980s, including Birdy (1984), Vision Quest (1985), and Married to the Mob (1988).
Modine has been nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television and has received a special Golden Globe for him and the rest of the ensemble in Short Cuts.
