President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden make a tracing of Cpl. Dennis F. Shine's name at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of Vietnam War Veterans Day on Monday, March 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden make a tracing of Cpl. Dennis F. Shine's name after laying flowers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of Vietnam War Veterans Day on Monday, March 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pause after laying flowers as they visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to commemorate Vietnam War Veterans Day, Monday, March 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive to lay flowers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of Vietnam War Veterans Day on Monday, March 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden make a tracing of Cpl. Dennis F. Shine's name at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of Vietnam War Veterans Day on Monday, March 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid tribute Monday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to mark the 48th anniversary of the departure of the last U.S. combat troops from the war zone.
March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, which commemorates the date in 1973 when the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam was disestablished.
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The Bidens made an unannounced trip and walked alongside one of the memorial's famed long black granite walls, polished to a high finish and etched with the names of more than 58,000 Americans who died in the war.
The couple laid a bouquet of flowers and stood in silence. The president then traced the name of Dennis F. Shine, according to the White House.
It was not immediately clear why the president chose Shine, a 21-year-old Massachusetts man who was killed in Vietnam in 1969.
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