Commemorating Vietnam Vets in N.M.

On March 29, a statue depicting a kneeling soldier paying homage to a fallen comrade will be dedicated at the New Mexico Veterans' Memorial adjacent to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

The statue, funded by Chapter 318 of the Vietnam Veterans of America in Albuquerque, was created by George Salas, an Army Vietnam Veteran, who described the two-year project as "a labor of love."

Salas, a self-taught sculptor who served in Vietnam in from 1968 to 1969, called his work on the statue cathartic because it rekindled memories of the war. But it ended up as a truly healing process.

And 50 years after the start of the war Vietnam vets still need some healing.