Soon, the City of Waterloo will be introducing two additional programs to honor local service members – both of past and present. 

Hometown Heroes 

After seeing banners honoring service members crop up on streets across the country – including in nearby Columbia and Red Bud – Waterloo Mayor Tom Smith decided it was time for his city to join the Hometown Heroes program. 

“As I’ve been driving around a lot of towns here lately looking for historic markers and war memorials, I’ve seen other towns have this Hometown Heroes Military Banner Program and I thought, ‘We need to get into this program,’” Smith explained. 

Smith and Waterloo Community Relations Coordinator Sarah Deutch hope to have the portion of Lakeview Drive across from the park’s Veterans Memorial and Country Club Lane and Rogers Street’s posts sporting the 30-inch-by-60-inch banners, each one showcasing a different service member’s name and picture, come May. 

Should they have more heroes to honor, banners will also be displayed on Veterans Drive across from the Waterloo VFW. 

Banners will showcase those currently serving or who have been honorably discharged. Heroes must have a connection to the area, either as a Waterloo resident, immediate family member of a Waterloo resident or active member of the Waterloo VFW or Waterloo American Legion. 

“I think it’s important to note it’s not just for currently serving military, it can also be to honor any past military personnel,” Deutch said. 

Those who are hometown heroes or wish to honor a hero of their own must submit an application and $100 fee – which foots the cost of the banner – by March 31. Applications are available at waterloo.il.us or at city hall.

Banners will be displayed from May until winter for the next two years. Smith explained they will not be up year-round to prevent winter weather from damaging them. At the end of their two-year stint, banners will be returned to the applicant to keep. Then, the application process for new banners will begin. 

“I think Waterloo does a great job of honoring our vets with the things we’ve added out at the Veterans Memorial, and this is just another thing that we need to do to say, ‘Thank you for your service,’” Smith said. 

Vietnam Vets Day

Recently, Waterloo became a commemorative partner with the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration after alderman Stan Darter brought the idea to Smith. 

Now, it is planning its first two events as such.

As Smith explained, commemorative partners are required to host two events per year so the commemoration is well-established in the community by the 50th anniversary of the war’s end in 2025. 

On March 21, the city will issue a proclamation honoring March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. In 2017, then-president Donald Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 into law, which designated every March 29 as this special day.

“At the city council meeting we’ll do the proclamation for the national day and we’ll invite our local veterans groups to attend,” Smith said. 

Then, on the fifth anniversary of National Vietnam War Veterans Day, the community will be encouraged to gather at the courthouse for a ceremony. The event is set to begin at 10 a.m. and will feature Gibault’s a capella group performing the “Star Spangled Banner,” a school group saying the pledge and a short program about the day’s significance. 

“We are going to put the service flags for the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force up and we’ll leave one open for the flag, hopefully we get the flag by then, and we’ll do a welcome home to Vietnam veterans,” Smith said. 

He asked that community members bring light-up, “Welcome Home” signs to honor the veterans.

Also at the event, veterans and their families will be able to sign up to receive certificates of honor and pins. Such certificates are available to living American military service members who served during the Vietnam War era, those unaccounted for, in memory of loved ones killed either in the line of duty or who died outside of duty and for surviving spouses of deceased Vietnam War veterans. 

“If you were on active duty during the Vietnam War, you can sign up for it, to be recognized, because not everybody went over there. Even if you were stationed here, you were assisting with the war effort in different fashions,” Smith said. 

There will also be sign-ups available at City Hall closer to the date. 

Smith said he is happy to provide a long-awaited welcome home for Vietnam War era veterans. 

“A lot of them didn’t get the support from our nation while they were in-service or returned from overseas, and they should be entitled to a welcome home,” he said, continuing, “We honored them a few years ago at Waterloo High School and for some of them, that was the first time that anyone ever acknowledged them. During the Vietnam War, I was a member of the Missouri National Guard and I think it’s very important that we honor our servicemen that went overseas or were on active duty during that time. They put a lot at stake and fought a war.” 

For more information on either program, contact Deutch at sdeutch@waterloo.il.us. Applications for the Hometown Heroes program can be sent to Deutch’s email or to City Hall, ATTN: Sarah Deutch, 100 West Fourth St., Waterloo.