Retired Tech Sgt. Larry Dreamis Hill of Cecilia often can be found at the replica VietÂnam Veterans Memorial Wall at Elizabethtown Nature Park, donning a long, gray beard and hat that reads âVietnam Veteran.â For Hill, both the beard and the hat are hard-earned.
When Hill served in Vietnam in 1968, he was not allowed to grow facial hair. And when he returned home from the war, he found that even members of American Legion halls were not receptive to Vietnam veterans.
Now that he is retired from the military and has helped establish a large-scale memorial for his fallen military brothers and sisters, he has no intention of shaving his face or hiding his veteran insignia. In fact, Hill said his vocal support for military veterans is a way of demonstrating his First Amendment rights, which is one of the chief principles he sought to defend by joining the military initially.