And Christmas during war is an entirely unique experience from anything else. When we asked for your most prized stories of the holidays in uniform, our Vietnam-era veteran readers responded in force.

In 1979, Congress grants a Vietnam War veterans' committee the right to build a memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., dedicated to American soldiers killed in the conflict in Vietnam.

“I had probably the most embarrassing capture in the entire Vietnam War,” Hegdahl said in a 1997 interview Leepson quotes in the book ... to build his life. The veteran began working ...