Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans with 1st Sgt. Leonard D. Ross
Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans
Presented by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter #1096, the Vietnam War Exhibit & Education Center, and Vietnam Veterans of Brevard; Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans was organized by Ben Bydalek and Manny Alexander with guest speaker Leonard D. Ross U.S. Army retired.
1st Sgt. Leonard D. Ross Served 22 years in the U.S. Army (1966-1988). Leonard served 2 tours in Vietnam and was wounded in action on June 16th, 1971, in the A Shau valley.
Leonard D. Ross grew up in Americus, Georgia and joined the U.S. Army in 1966 after not being able to find work. “I rushed home to tell my mother what I had accomplished. She was livid. I heard her tell her sister that her only son was stupid enough to sign the paperwork that will take him 9,000 miles away to serve in the jungles of Vietnam and die over there.”
Leonard would do his basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana (Tigerland) and attend jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia. On the 12th of December 1966 he would land in Pleiku, Vietnam and be assigned to 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry of the 25th Infantry Division. “Five days later, I was an 18-year-old point man for my company on a search and destroy mission in the Ia Drang Valley. Not because I had any particular skills, but because I was a newbie and newbies were expendable.”
In December of 1967 Leonard was back home in Georga. “I thought that I was an American hero. But when I got home, no one outside of my family and my girlfriend said anything of decency to me.” In March of 1968 he would graduate from Drill Sergeant School and report to Fort Benning, Georgia. “Two years, nine months later, I was back in Vietnam. Assigned to the 3rd Air Assault Platoon of the 101st Airborne Division. On the 16th of June 1971, I was wounded in ground combat against a hostile enemy force.”
After recovering from his wounds, Leonard would report back to Fort Polk, Louisiana as a Drill Sergeant. For his service in Vietnam Leonard received a Purple Heart and 2 Bronze Stars with Valor. “I will say to my brothers and sisters of the Vietnam War, it does not matter to me whether you were in the United States Army, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, the United States Coast Guard, or the United States Air Force. What is important to me is that you serve and you serve honorably.” - Leonard D. Ross
