ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Each year on March 29, the nation recognizes National Vietnam Veterans Day.

"It's a national observance, and it's a way for us to really recognize all the courageous men and women who served in Vietnam and came home to an ungrateful nation," executive director of Veterans Outreach Center Laura Heltz said.

Marking nearly 50 years since the last combat troops had left South Vietnam, the Veterans Outreach Center honors those who made it home, and thousands of American service members who never did.

"It's a great opportunity for the nation as a whole to recognize the service sacrifice, not only of those who served and came back, but those whose names are on the wall in Washington, those who didn't come back, and even those that may have served but never got to Vietnam," Vietnam war veteran Charles Klauck said. 

Serving from 1966 to 1968, Klauck expresses the importance of these events locally.

"We are at the airport six times a year to welcome Honor Flight home," Klauck said. "So it's important. I enjoy seeing the young people at the airport, you know, with smiles on their faces, even though a lot of them are there and are walking grandpa home or a relative. I take time out to talk to them and thank them for the fact that they are there to provide that welcome home that a lot of us didn't receive when we first came home."

It was a war that lingered with many soldiers, only for them to be unwelcome once they returned home.

"When we got to the Los Angeles airport to board a plane, we walked up," Klauck said. "Three of us walked up to the bar to get a drink and nobody would move to let us get up to the bar. We kind of had a porch area. And when I arrived in Rochester at 2 a.m., the only one there to welcome me home was my mother."

As a means of saying thank you, the VOC provides numerous programs and services that every veteran needs. And they are seeing their organization continuously grow every year. 

"Today is a little bit about how we say we're sorry that [that] happened, but we love you guys and we're so grateful that you came home," Heltz said.

Veterans are formally hearing a 'welcome home' in Rochester that many have long waited for. 

"Today is about Vietnam veterans, but we shouldn't forget any of those who have served," Klauck said. "We need to honor and remember everyone who has put the uniform on and gone and served their country."