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Engraved in Their Minds

Veteran Hugh Jordan, who attended the Vietnam Veterans Memorial's dedication Nov. 13, 1982, will return for events this weekend. (Photos By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)

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Funk left in December 1974 -- four months before Saigon fell -- disillusioned, cynical and realizing he needed to move on. "I've been invested in this," he said he thought. "How long can you believe, or try to believe, in something?"

Eight years later, the Washington hotels were filled with veterans like him. "I remember going on the march," Funk said, and meeting men who had been in his outfit, Advisory Team 85.

"It was the first time we felt we could talk about this," he said. "It was the first gathering, kind of . . . It was, 'Okay, we can talk openly about this. We don't have to be ashamed of it.' "

Now, 25 years on, being a Vietnam veteran has "cachet," he said.

He believes the experience defined him, making him a better person and vehemently antiwar.

And to this day, if he hears a helicopter or the Vietnamese language, it all comes back.

"It's always there," he said. "Vietnam never leaves you."

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Engraved in Their Minds

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