Warren Memorial Day ceremony honors 61 local Vietnam War veterans

Hundreds gathered at the Warren Amphitheatre to honor the more than six dozen veterans from Trumbull County who died in the Vietnam War.

"Freedom really isn't free, there's a cost for it and those who made the freedoms that we enjoy they paid the ultimate sacrifice," Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said.

One by one, their faces and their names were stationed at the base of the Amphitheater before all who would look to them with gratitude and a fierce admiration for their bravery.

"For each casualty in Vietnam, each of those families affects about 150 people," James Valesky, president and founder of the Warren Heritage Center said. "So if you figure 61 from Trumbull County, do the math. Each one of those men represents a family connection of 130, 150 people," he said.

For some, this is a day that extracts quite the toll.

"I had a couple cousins that went to Vietnam because I was real close to the Vietnam era," Jesse Matheson Second Brigade Chapter H national vice president said. "These guys, you know, they're in high school and they're sitting in high school and all of a sudden their number gets pulled and they had to go to Vietnam," he said.

In some cases if the veterans were fortunate enough to return, they were never the same.

"There's not a whole lot of words to put that in but there's definitely a lot of honor and I think that people that really mean it they feel it deep inside," Jeffrey "Fireball," Second Brigade Chapter H president said.

"They paid the ultimate price and we'll never be able to repay them," Valesky said.

More than anything, veterans and city officials want people to focus on the sacrifice that was made and to remember and honor it for the rest of their lives.