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By T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporter
 A bill designating March 29 Vietnam Veterans Day in Minnesota is heading to the Senate floor.
Christy Sauro, of North Branch, Diane Finnemann, of Forest Lake, and Sen. Dan Skogen, DFL-Hewitt, huddle before presenting their Vietnam Veterans’ Day bill before a Senate committee on Tuesday (March 11).
“The Vietnam veteran was never officially welcomed back and given the respect they deserve,” said Diane Finnemann of Forest Lake, testifying before the Senate Agriculture and Veterans Committee on behalf of the bill.
Finnemann, who lost her Vietnam veteran brother to suicide, said rather than welcomed back, Vietnam veterans were spat on for their service.
“I don’t ever want people to forget their sacrifice,” she said, speaking Tuesday (March 11).
Christy Sauro, author of “The Minnesota Twins Platoon,” and North Branch resident, testified that in writing his book — a story about a group of young Minnesotans sworn into the military on the Twins baseball field — he became aware how little people actually knew about the war.
“I don’t ever want people to forget these soldiers,” he said.
Some 1,072 Minnesota soldiers are listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington.
The bill was passed out of veterans committee and sent to the Senate floor.
The House Vietnam Veterans’s Day bill is still working its way through committee.
Another Senate bill, authored by Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, would designate July 27 as Korean War Veterans Day in Minnesota.
Koering told the story of an uncle, a Minnesota native and veteran who no longer lived in the state, and how he managed to get the uncle a Korean War medallion and present it to him.
That some day, the uncle suffered a burst blood vessel but before being gurneyed into the operation room, told family to take care of the medal.
He died in the operating room, Koering explained.
Those medals mean a hell of a lot to veterans, said Koering.
“This day (Korean War Veterans Day) will mean a heck of lot,” he said.
In the House the Korean War Veterans Day legislation is working its way through committee.
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