Actor Gary Sinise welcomes Vietnam veteran Jim Taylor in Dallas after Taylor visited Vietnam in November for the first time since the war ended. Both men will be in Washington to celebrate National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29, 2026. (Courtesy of Veterans United Home Loans)
WASHINGTON — Jim Taylor is looking forward to seeing some of his Vietnam “band of brothers” again after they took a two-week trip in November and visited the country for the first time since the war.
“Just get a big hug from each of them because, from the day we met and as we moved forward on that trip, we became family,” he said.
Taylor, 88, who lives northeast of Sacramento, Calif., is in Washington to celebrate National Vietnam War Veterans Day on Sunday.
Vietnam Veterans Day was first proclaimed on March 29, 2012, by President Barack Obama, who called upon all Americans to observe the day with programs, ceremonies and activities commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump, designating every March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
March 29, 1973, is the day U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam was disestablished and the last American combat troops came home.
Taylor, who retired as an Army major in 1980, joined the service from San Francisco in 1956. He served the first 10 years of his career as an enlisted soldier and attained the rank of staff sergeant before becoming a commissioned officer. In 1968, he received the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon Johnson and was promoted to captain for his actions in a battle west of Que Son in November 1967.
The former soldier said he had previous opportunities to go back to Vietnam but wasn’t ready. He wasn’t sure about returning because it “didn’t feel right.”
Veterans United Home Loans, the largest Veterans Affairs lender in the country, reached out to Taylor and others about returning to Vietnam. The group is working on producing a documentary about the 10 veterans and their trip.
Taylor said the group started in the south near Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, and worked their way north to Hanoi. They visited his battle site later in the trip.
“I wasn’t on that battlefield alone. I had some great, great troopers with me, with a cavalry outfit,” Taylor said.
By Nov. 8, 1967, Taylor was serving as a first lieutenant in Troop B, 1st Squadron, 1st Armored Cavalry Regiment, Americal Division in Vietnam.
When he returned to the site, there was a moment where he stood looking over the rice paddies and the mountains where they would have engaged in a 10-hour battle. Taylor said it was mostly the same.
He thought about Capt. John Barovetto; Staff Sgt. David Wainscott; Spc. Thomas Lee Scott; Pfc. Jerry Wayne Gentry, the youngest of the group; and Pfc. Robert Nitz. All of their names are listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, which recognizes more than 58,000 Americans who died or are missing in action.
“It gave me some relief,” Taylor said. “I closed my eyes and I said, ‘Jerry, Robert, Thomas and David and John, I’m just here to say I’m with you, brother, and I love you, and rest in peace. I’ll never forget you, and I’ll never forsake you. You will always be part of my life.’ ”
Veterans United is hosting a large-scale celebration in the nation’s capital Sunday during cherry blossom season. The afternoon will include a ceremonial welcome walk and a concert on the National Mall featuring Gary Sinise and The Lt. Dan Band.
Country music star and Army Reserve soldier Craig Morgan, left, is promoted to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2 in a ceremony officiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Jan. 16, 2026. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
Actor and comedian Rob Riggle, a retired Marine Corps Reserve officer, will serve as the master of ceremonies. Country music artist and Army reservist Craig Morgan will also perform.
Sinise, an award-winning actor, is no stranger to being involved with Vietnam veterans and the military. Since 2003, Sinise and the band have performed more than 600 free concerts in support of active-duty military, veterans and first responders, according to the Gary Sinise Foundation.
Sunday’s event, though, will mark the first time he and his band will perform as part of the National Vietnam War Veterans Day in Washington.
“I’m saying to you and your families, come on out. It’s a free concert. Let us celebrate you. Let us welcome you home [and] give you a salute,” Sinise said Wednesday. “We can never do enough to honor our veterans and to support our defenders and their families.”
Actor Gary Sinise welcomes Vietnam veteran Michael Gilpin to Dallas after Gilpin visted Vietnam in November for the first time since the war ended. Sinise and other Vietnam veterans will be in Washington to celebrate National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29, 2026. (Courtesy of Veterans United Home Loans)
Sinise was a senior in high school in 1973 as the war wound down. A few years afterward when he met his wife-to-be, she introduced him to her brothers who served in the war.
“I started feeling very guilty over how kind of oblivious I was in high school to what guys and gals, just a little bit older than I was, were going through at that time. So I wanted to do something to support them,” Sinise said.
He started to support Vietnam veterans in the 1980s through the Chicago theater company he co-founded, the Steppenwolf, and became involved in local veterans groups. One of Sinise’s best-known roles is his Oscar-nominated performance as Army Lt. Dan Taylor, a platoon leader who loses his legs fighting in Vietnam in 1994’s “Forrest Gump.”
“I’m glad I made the most out of the lessons I learned,” Sinise said.
Taylor and four of his new brothers are in Washington to celebrate Vietnam Veterans Day and partake in the festivities.
The celebration comes as the U.S. approaches a month of combat operations against Iran.
The White House says it is engaged in talks to end the joint U.S.-Israeli operation, which has resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and killed more than 2,400 people in Iran and Lebanon, according to those governments’ figures.
The Pentagon is considering sending up to 10,000 more ground troops to the Middle East to potentially support operations in Iran in a move aimed at giving President Donald Trump more military options, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Taylor said people should say thank you on Vietnam Veterans Day but that should be said to all veterans. He also added that people should have “faith in their country.”
“If you want to support the troops, the president or the veterans, get behind our country and support our country because we are the greatest country on Earth,” the retired major said. He encouraged people coming out this weekend to come to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and say hello and “look at those names that’s on that wall,” and say “a silent prayer for each one of them and their family.”
