United States Army

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Letters written by U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty of Columbia, S.C., are among the personal artifacts exchanged. In one, he wrote, "I have never been so scared in my life." The North Vietnamese used his letters for propaganda.

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A member of the U.S. Army salutes a grave site on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Star Wars characters decorate the top of the headstone of U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel A. Frazier. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Stephanie Montgomery lays in the grass beside the grave of her brother U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Thaddeus Scott Montgomery. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Family members raise a toast in memory of U.S. Army First Lieutenant Kenneth M. Ballard at his grave site on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Bracelets and other tokens decorate the top of the headstone of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant James Alan Justice. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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A girl places a rose at the headstone of U.S. Army Captain Ian Patrick Weikel on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Mementos and lipstick kiss markings are seen the headstone of U.S. Army Sergeant Joel Clarkson. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Karen Clarkson, of Fairbanks, Alaska, kisses the headstone of her son U.S. Army Sergeant Joel Clarkson on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 28, 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr/The Washington Times)

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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright smiles as she looks up at newly naturalized citizen Olugbenja Obasanjo, a major in the U.S. Army, following a naturalization ceremony Thursday, May 24, 2012 at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Albright, herself a naturalized citizen, was the keynote speaker for the event. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Olubenja Obasanjo, a major in the U.S. Army, has a quiet moment after becoming a U.S. citizen Thursday, May 24, 2012 at a naturalization ceremony at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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In this March 1965 file photo shot by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas, hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, File)

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Members of the Washington, D.C. Regional Police Pipe Band, including (from left) Sgt. Brian Stone with the Montgomery County Police Department, Lt. Col. Steven Kinnear with the U.S. Army and Officer Michael Putman with the Montgomery County Police Department, warm up on F Street Northwest before playing at the annual Blue Mass honoring law enforcement and public safety officials Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at St. Patrick's in the City in Washington, D.C. The pipers played for the procession and the recession. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Troops from the Central African Republic stand guard April 29, 2012, at a building used for joint meetings between them and U.S. Army special forces in Obo, Central African Republic. Obo was the first place in the Central African Republic that Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked in 2008 and today is one of four forward operating locations where U.S. special forces have paired up with local troops and Ugandan soldiers to seek out Kony. (Associated Press)