Published: August 04, 2006 12:08 pm      

Governor, former Miss America pay tribute to veterans

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher and former Miss America Heather French Henry paid tribute Thursday evening to all military veterans at the opening ceremonies of the Kentucky Veterans Welcome Home Celebration.

“It was 28 years before my father, a Vietnam veteran, really came home,” Henry said. "That's how long it took for the demons he had brought back from Vietnam to leave him.”

Pointing toward the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the north side of Battlefield Park, Henry said, “My father had a lot of friends whose names are on that wall.”

She told how four of her father’s buddies chose to accompany him on a probe of their base camp’s perimeter because “They thought it would be too dangerous for him.”

Henry’s father was wounded, but his four buddies were killed.

Fletcher recalled a visit he made with his father, a World War II veteran, to the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C.

The elder Fletcher was a tank driver. He told about the tank commanders who had to expose their upper bodies above the tanks' hatches to observe the battlefields. Many of them were killed.

“My father carried those scars with him all his life,” Fletcher said. “I know that many of you veterans here this evening carry similar scars,” he said. “But, I can tell you that you do not carry those scars in vain. America is a free and prosperous nation today because of your service.”

At 7 p.m., shortly after the program began, a B-52 bomber flew over the park.

The governor presented Kentucky colonel commissions to four recipients of the Medal of Honor and one of the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, Frank D. Walker of Richmond, who were present at the ceremony.

The Medal of Honor recipients were Ernest E. “Ernie” West of Wurtland, Ronald E. Rosser of Crooksville, Ohio, Rodolfo P. Hernandez of Colton, Calif., and John F. Baker Jr. of Moline, Ill.

Kentucky honors will be presented later in the weekend to Medal of Honor recipients James E. Livingston of McRae, Ga., and Donald E. Ballard of Kansas City, Mo.

Richmond native Wayne O. Smith, who lives in Naples, Fla., also will be honored.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.