Forest Lake woman organizes Vietnam veterans program one last time before passing torch

Veterans who served during the Vietnam era will be honored again this weekend in Forest Lake — thanks to Diane Finnemann.

This will be Finnemann’s last year organizing the Vietnam Veterans Day celebration after founding it 17 years ago. Finnemann, a resident of Forest Lake, started the celebration in 2007 and pushed for the Minnesota Legislature to pass a bill in 2008 declaring March 29 Vietnam Veterans Day in Minnesota. She also was a state volunteer for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization that oversaw the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Diane Finnemann in 2013 holding a photo of her brother Wallace ‘Skip’ Schmidt, a Vietnam War veteran who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

“This all started when I saw an opportunity for our society to make up for the wrong that was done and show our respect and gratitude to our Vietnam veterans,” said Finnemann, whose brother Wallace “Skip” Schmidt died by suicide in 1972, four years after returning from Vietnam. “It still amazes me that with zero budget, we were able to pull together some very interesting and moving programs. We found out that people really do care.”

Hundreds of people have attended the celebration through the years, and Finnemann said the response from veterans “kept my passion alive.”

“I witnessed first-hand veterans letting their guard down and opening up about their service,” she said. “They went from not talking at all to being proud of their service.”

One year, a Vietnam veteran from southern Minnesota approached Finnemann to tell her that hearing Schmidt’s story had affected him so deeply “that he finally went for help for his own PTSD,” she said. “He told me that he believed Skip’s story saved his life.”

Shannon Monahan, Finnemann’s and Schmidt’s youngest sister, will be taking over the organizing of the event, she said.

This year’s celebration will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at American Legion Post No. 225.

Retired Col. Wilbur Joseph Latham Jr., recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star medals, will be the featured speaker. Latham, of Marshalltown, Iowa, flew more than 100 missions over North Vietnam in 1966 as an Air Force fighter pilot.

The winner of a $500 scholarship also will be announced on Sunday; the scholarship fund, sponsored by Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Charities, has given out $7,500 to graduating senior high school students since 2008.

This year’s scholarship will be given in memory of U.S. Army veteran David Guerrette, 76, of Hinckley, Minn., who died on Oct. 16, 2023. Guerrette was a longtime supporter of Vietnam Veterans Day and a member of the Forest Lake American Legion and Forest Lake VFW, where he actively participated in the Honor Guard and Color Guard, paying tribute to fallen comrades, Finnemann said.

The program is free and open to the public; doors will open at 1 p.m.

For more information, contact Finnemann at 651-464-4721 or dfinnemann@msn.com.

Suicide prevention information

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