When Vietnam veterans returned home from battle, Eugene Lang says the reality was many were treated with disrespect. 

"When we came home in 1969, people spit on us, so why not support us now?" Lang said.

He received his Purple Heart award 44 years after being wounded in combat. Purple Heart recipients joined Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney on Tuesday to celebrate the House passing the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor Commemorative Coin Act.

The creation of this commemorative coin will raise money to support the National Purple Heart Honor Mission, a 501(c)3 organization that promotes awareness about the Purple Heart medal, its recipients, and the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor.

Proceeds from the sale of the coin will support programmatic activities such as the Purple Heart Patriot Project, which brings Purple Heart recipients from across the country to the Hall of Honor, and other educational outreach.

Lang says he comes out to support events like this because until recently, he made sure no one knew he was a veteran. 

"You would not have known that I was a veteran. I hid all the facts," Lang said.

Lang's parents survived the Holocaust and he came to the U.S. as a refugee from Communist Hungary as a boy in the mid-1950s.

Lang says he's always been proud to serve the country that welcomed him, and he remained active in veterans' organizations and as a veteran advocate himself. 

"I'm very proud and I'm proud of my brothers," Lang said.

Now the bill heads to the Senate for a vote.