Barnegat Vietnam Vets To Be Thanked At Event

BARNEGAT, NJ — Barnegat Vietnam War veterans will be celebrated with an event hosted by a former Vietnam refugee on National Vietnam War Veterans Day, March 29.

The event will be held in Barnegat’s Gazebo Park on Tuesday, March 29 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. VA and DAV support will be available earlier in the day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Barnegat’s American Legion location.

Barnegat’s Vietnam War Veterans Day event was first held in 2018, set up by Barnegat resident Thy Cavagnaro. This is the third annual event, after being canceled the past two years due to COVID.

Highlights of the event will include a keynote address by 10-year-old Barnegat resident Vincent Lorenzo, whose grandfather was a Vietnam veteran. Lorenzo raises money for veterans on his own by playing the saxophone outside of his house, Cavagnaro said.

There will also be a reunion between an Operation Babylift survivor and a veteran. Steve Hartmann was an infant who was supposed to be on the first flight that crashed but was placed elsewhere through a mix-up. Hartmann has never met a veteran from this operation and will be meeting Master Sgt. Rene Fougeray, who was on the final flight of Operation Babylift. Hartmann will be performing a song for Fougeray and all other veterans.

Cavagnaro came to the U.S. in 1975 as a Vietnam War refugee. Now, she has dedicated time and money to thanking Vietnam veterans who are often underappreciated. She said she started the event after a Vietnam veteran she did not know attacked her online, saying that he wished he had killed all of her ancestors first.

“I realized other Vietnam veterans must still be imprisoned by the same pain this man was in, so made it a goal to try to reach as many Vietnam veterans as possible to let them know how much people like me and my family deeply appreciated everything all Vietnam veterans did collectively to help fight for our freedom in Vietnam,” Cavagnaro told Patch.

Cavagnaro and her husband decided to set aside money so they could fully fund a Vietnam veterans memorial in Barnegat that Cavagnaro designed herself and had installed. The memorial is the only Vietnam veterans memorial in the entire country that was fully funded by a Vietnamese refugee.

On the first national Vietnam War Veterans Day in 2018, the memorial was dedicated. Cavagnaro said that about 800 veterans came across the country and the event was an overwhelming success.

“The vets who attended insisted with me that this needs to be done every year,” she said. And apart from those two past years, it has been.

To make these interactions more meaningful, Cavagnaro says she and her husband regularly sponsor group dinners with veterans and their spouses, “so that we can have real conversations with them instead of just gathering in a large crowd,” she said. The Cavagnaros pay for everything themselves and do not accept donations for these dinners.

Vietnam veterans will be presented with Vietnam War lapel pins, bumper magnets and fun pins at the event. All veterans and supporters are welcome.

The event is co-sponsored by the Barnegat American Legion Post 232 and the Barnegat VFW Post 10092

The Vietnam War Veteran’s Day event is next Tuesday, March 29, from 3 p.m.-4 p.m. at Gazebo Park located at 352 N Main St. in Barnegat. You can find more information on their Facebook page here.