‘AMEN’—The Rev. Gary Dickey blesses the Vietnam veterans vault. JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers Calling it a “fitting tribute,” a local pastor blessed a burial vault filled with hundreds of Vietnam War-related mementos during Tuesday services at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

The Rev. Gary Dickey of United Methodist Church of Westlake Village presided over the ceremony, which included a veterans’ color guard from Simi Valley Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 10049.

Items inside the vault included a dress uniform, flowers, news clippings, photographs, candles, poems, love notes, family letters, flags and military pins and medals. They were left by visitors at the base of the 240-foot-long Vietnam Veterans Wall during the traveling exhibit’s visit to Pierce Brothers in September.

The wall, a ¾-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. spent six days at Pierce Brothers over Labor Day weekend last year.

The dedication of the memento vault took place on California’s first Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. The annual day of remembrance was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year. March 30 was selected as the date because it’s the anniversary of the day United States troops were withdrawn from Vietnam under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

This year marks the 37th anniversary of the withdrawal.

More than 58,000 military men and women died in Vietnam, and more than 300,000 were wounded.

Having the vault ceremony on Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day was an appropriate move, said Daniel Smith III, a Vietnam veteran who served two tours of duty in the Marines from 1968-70. Smith drove here from Riverside with his wife, Gail, and 8-year-old niece, Makenna Young to participate in the event The Smiths helped coordinate the Vietnam wall visit to Pierce Brothers.

“Pray for the souls, all those silenced and those still here,” Smith said. “We owe it to them to ensure that they are never forgotten.”

This is the third such vault buried at Pierce Brothers. The mortuary hosted the Vietnam Wall twice before, in 1999 and in 1986. Each time mementos left by visitors were placed in a casket and buried.

All three vaults are marked by plaques and are located in the memorial park’s Garden of Valor for veterans.

Similar vaults are buried at the site of each of the traveling Vietnam Wall exhibits, Smith said.

“It’s all part of the healing process we’re still trying to deal with,” Smith said.

Smith urged the small group of people in attendance to pray for the souls of those who served in Vietnam, both those silenced and those still alive.

“We want to ensure that no uniformed member of the American armed forces ever comes back from any engagement without a proper welcome home,” Smith said.

“If you don’t support the war at least support the men and women who go and fight.

“Military folks are on duty 24/7. They’re out there willingly making sacrifices for all of us,” Smith said.