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Hundreds gathered in Del Ray on May 26 to honor Alexandria’s 68 fallen and missing Vietnam War service members, including seven men who remain unaccounted for decades after the conflict.
Gold Star families joined veterans, local officials and community members for the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Captain Rocky Versace Plaza and Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The site is named for Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace, a Vietnam prisoner of war and Medal of Honor recipient.
Volunteers stood beside names carved into stone benches and read each one aloud. The benches list the service members chronologically by their deaths in Southeast Asia from 1963 through 1972.
Kevin Rue, representing the Friends of Rocky Versace, served as master of ceremonies. He emphasized that Versace, Tony Winkler, Doug Blodgett, Joe Davies, Morgan Donahue, Leland McCants and Larry Lilly remain missing. They are among 1,576 Americans still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia from the Vietnam War.
Gold Star relatives attending included Reba Bayliss, widow of Capt. Paul Bayliss, and their son, Patrick; Sue Harvey, sister of missing 1st Lt. Larry Lilly; Capt. Henry Spengler’s widow, Bette Meuleners, and brother, James Spengler; Earl Valentine, brother of Pvt. Jeron Valentine; and Curtis Versace, Rocky Versace’s sister-in-law.
Two men named at the memorial, Capt. Henry Spengler and Capt. Barry Lockhart, were once listed as missing. During a September 2024 POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, rosettes were placed beside their names at the Courts of the Missing to show that their remains had been recovered and positively identified.
Six members of Versace’s West Point class of 1959 joined members of its affiliated class of 2009 to place a wreath at his statue.
Members of Saint Rita American Heritage Girls Troop 1381 led the Pledge of Allegiance. Miss Arlington 2025 Madison Whitbeck performed the national anthem, while Bishop Ireton High School student Catherine Cassidy sang “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.”
Deacon Steve Dixon of Saint Rita delivered the invocation and closing prayer. Lt. Col. Steve Tracy concluded the ceremony by playing taps.
Attendees included state Sen. Adam Ebbin, Dels. Charniele Herring and Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, former Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg, former City Councilman David Speck and former Vice Mayor Bill Cleveland.
After the formal program, Rue presented Department of Defense Vietnam veteran lapel pins to three eligible veterans on behalf of the Friends of Rocky Versace.
Rue noted that Versace is the only U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War whose remains have not been recovered. He closed with the ceremony’s central message: Versace and Alexandria’s other 67 fallen Vietnam War service members have not been forgotten.