MAINE, USA — The faces are showing their age now. Gray hair and white beards mark the men who fought a war in Vietnam half a century or more ago.
There are still a few World War Two veterans around, and more from the Korean War. But the soldiers of the Vietnam War, and the nurses and doctors who cared for them, are now the largest group of America's old vets.
Today, the country marked the 49th anniversary of the day in 1973 when U.S. troops left that war. March 29 is officially Vietnam War Veterans' Day.
At the Lewiston Armory on Tuesday, it was a time to reflect and remember.
"It's always in your mind," Arthur MacArthur of Lisbon said. He was in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969 — tough years for many of those soldiers.
"Yeah, we had some difficult times, bringing in gunships. [There were] explosions," MacArthur recalled. "But I was very fortunate, being in electronics."
MacArthur added he did not face as much combat as others.
He was one of about four dozen veterans who joined a special ceremony at the Lewiston Armory to honor and remember their service.
Charlie Paul, who was a Marine in Vietnam, and later a Command Master Sergeant with the Army Reserve, organized the event, as he has done the past several years.
"I did two years in Vietnam. Why I came back I don't know," Paul told the gathering.
He is passionate about remembering his fellow veterans and their service, and the emotions of that long-ago war aren't far below the surface.
"As long as I'm alive, I want people to remember we didn't get a welcome home," Paul said.
Then he raised his voice, almost to a shout. "We got to welcome home ourselves!"
It's a half-century complaint often heard when talking with Vietnam veterans. Many tell how they were openly scorned when they returned home. Some said they were called names and cursed in airports, blamed for the country's unpopular war.
MacArthur echoed some of those memories when asked about the Lewiston ceremony.
"In some ways, it's like, too late. They called us baby killers, all those things. You try to bury things in the back of your mind, forget things, go on with your life. But at least I didn't dodge the draft or try to run off to Canada. I did my duty, served my country," MacArthur said.
Fellow Army veteran Roger Martel said he also tried to forget the war when he came home but is glad their service is finally being honored.
"In my younger years, I didn't think that much about it. And now, in my older years, I'm touched more and more by the recognition."
Nearly all Vietnam veterans are now in their seventies, at least. Paul, still wearing the Marine Corps uniform, vowed to do all he could to ensure these veterans are never ignored again.
"Every year when we come to March 29, I will do this for you. I will do this to keep our memory alive," Paul said.
That said, Paul stood in front of the veterans, swapping salutes and hugs, giving each a Vietnam veteran pin. His wife and daughter gave each a hug.
It's the welcome home the veterans did not get when they returned from Vietnam.
And later, at Lewiston's large veterans' memorial, there was a rifle salute, and a wreath placed on the new Vietnam monument.
Lewiston, Auburn, and nearby towns sent many of their young people to that war. Some didn't come back. Others were forever changed.
Roger Martel reflected on that, with words that could likely have been spoken by every other veteran in the room.
"The older I get, the more I realize how much the time in the military shaped me into what would become my life," Martel said.
On March 29, they all remember.
