Nearly 40 years after troops returned home from Vietnam to a barrage of scorn and persecution from their fellow citizens, the U.S. Senate has recognized a day to give Vietnam veterans the welcome and appreciation they deserve.

North Carolina’s senior senator, Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced a resolution naming March 30 “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day,” commemorating the date in 1973 on which the U.S. military completed withdrawal of combat troops from the country. The resolution was passed unanimously March 19.

“This was brought to Senator Burr’s attention by North Carolinians who served in Vietnam and is a small way for us to say ‘thank you’ to those who served but never received the recognition or appreciation they deserved upon their return home,” a spokesman for Burr’s office, David Ward, said.

Local veterans recalled the hostility and even violence they met when they returned from tours of duty in Vietnam.

The president of the Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation and retired Marine sergeant major Mike Rooney said he remembers being unable to buy a beer in his home state of New Hampshire without harassment when he finished his tour in 1968.

“They were just calling us baby killers,” he said.

Jacksonville resident Pat Walker said her husband returned from Vietnam to be told at the airport that his uniform was a safety risk.

“He was spit on, he was screamed at,” Walker said. “A lot of men died very bitter, which is a shame.”

Lee Walker, a former Marine who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970, said that while the respect and recognition for faithful service to their country is coming late, it is still significant.

“It’s got to be meaningful,” he said. “Look at the (returning veterans) now. They’re getting treated well; they’re getting the respect that they need. That in my opinion is because the Vietnam vets kept fighting; we kept going to Congress and putting ourselves on the line.”

In a statement applauding the effort of Burr and other members of the senate to recognize the veterans of Vietnam, the president of Vietnam Veterans of America, John Rowan, said the commemorated day would serve a unique purpose.

“We were all too often considered losers, baby-killers, and pariahs of a war that divided the nation and reverberates till this day,” Rowan said. “While many in our nation have come to embrace those who served in that war, and while there are memorials to those who served and those who paid the ultimate price, there has never been a nationally recognized day for a belated ‘Welcome Home’ to all those who served.”

Pat Walker said the gesture would go part of the way in repaying a debt owed by the country to those who served.

“It’s great we have this day, but it doesn’t repay everything,” she said. “It’s a little late in coming, but I just think they need every recognition possible.”

According to information from Burr’s office, more than 58,000 members of the United States Armed Forces were killed and more than 300,000 wounded in Vietnam.