Congressman Joe Neguse gives Vietnam veterans welcome home he says they should've received 50 years ago

50 years ago, almost to the day, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, ending our involvement in the war. 

But those soldiers came home to a new kind of trauma as many Americans shamed and shunned them.

Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat who represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, is now trying to set the record straight. What happened to Vietnam veterans, he says, is a stain on our country. Every year he holds an event aimed at recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of Vietnam veterans like Terry Rizzuti.

For years, Rizzuti boycotted events where he had to salute the American flag, a flag that, for him, represented a country that had turned its back on him after he put his life on the line for it.

He was 19 years old when he joined the Marines and was sent to Vietnam.  

A Purple Heart recipient, he should have returned to a hero's welcome. Instead, he was met with hostility and scorn.

"Even the American Legions didn't want us and the VFWs didn't want us," he expressed.

Five decades later, Neguse is giving Rizzuti and other vets the welcome home they deserve.

"We're here to say the 'thank you' that you should have received when you first came home. And we're here to extend our deepest apologies that it took until this point for you to receive the recognitions that you so deeply deserve," Neguse said. 

Neguse, a son of immigrants, says it is because of the service and sacrifice of the veterans that he has freedoms his parents didn't.

"A big part of this is recognizing the men and women, who fought for those freedoms," he said. 

 60,000 of those men and women died in Vietnam. Rizzuti was hit by shrapnel.

He recalled coming home damaged physically, but even more emotionally.

"I was constantly at war in my head," Rizzuti said. 

It wasn't until he began writing when he was able to process the anger and anguish, while at 76 years old, he began to honor the flag once again.

One of his books, he says, is now taught at five universities.

"My work may only be a tiny drop in a huge bucket of all that is available by way of war research material but, by God, it's my drop and I'm proud of it," he said. 

He urged his fellow Vietnam veterans to add their drops to that bucket and to make their voices part of the historical record.

"Together we can set the war record straight, our hearts at peace, perhaps even our minds at rest," he said. 

Rizzuti says, after 9/11, people began to view Vietnam veterans differently and he in turn, saw his country differently.

"The Vietnam War defined me and taught me who I am as a human being. I'm a Vietnam vet and proud of it," he expressed.

Neguse says the event is a chance to not only honor the veterans but connect them to services. 

He's carried a number of bills to fund programs that help veterans with everything from housing to health care to job training.