Belmaine said he picked up 16 rifles from Marines who fell that day.

Weeks before he was wounded, Belmaine was photographed in what would become an iconic image of that battle. In a snapshot taken by a buddy and printed in "Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight for the DMZ," a 1991 history by Keith William Nolan, the 20-year-old Belmaine sits atop a concrete bunker, his face etched with fatigue.

The photo caption reads "The Walking Dead," the term North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh used to predict the fate of 1st Battalion Marines.

Belmaine came home from Vietnam in August 1967, and served the rest of his enlistment in the Caribbean and at Fort Meade, Md. He was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant in November 1969 and went home to Massachusetts and a series of blue-collar jobs.

While battling post-traumatic stress disorder, for which he has been hospitalized, Belmaine also became an activist. "As someone who put himself on line for the U.S.A., why do I and people like me not have the same rights as a straight soldier," said Belmaine, who in 1999 moved to South Florida with his partner of 41 years, Al Wakefield.

Jean Johnson, 76, of Hollywood said she might have made a career in the Air Force had she not been discouraged from reenlisting back in 1955. "You had to stay closeted if you wanted to stay in," said Johnson, retired from the real estate business. "We have not made as much progress as we should have."

Veterans such as Belmaine, Morris and Johnson now refuse to remain silent or invisible.

At 11 a.m. Thursday Belmaine will take part in a Veterans Day ceremony at Hagen Park, 2020 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors. At 2 p.m. a color guard made up of AVER members will conduct a ceremony at the Wilton Manors Health & Rehabilitation Center, 2675 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale.

"I don't have time to be depressed, or to live under a rock, peeking out from time to time," said Belmaine, who flies both the Stars and Stripes and his Marine Corps battalion flag outside his home. "You can't live under a rock forever."