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Remembering Alabama Veterans on Memorial Day, Three Veterans earn commemoriate stamp

Tourism hasn't only recovered on the Gulf Coast five years after the BP oil spill - industry officials say it's surging.

BP spent more than $230 million promoting tourism after the 2010 spill, and the company aired national commercials promoting the region for years.

Tourism officials say that publicity blitz boosted tourism to new levels even as questions remain about the spill's long-term environmental impact. Tourist spending has doubled in some areas since before the spill.

Tourism is up nationwide, and it's tough to determine exactly how much of the increase is linked to the BP promotions.  But residents say fears of a tourism collapse after the spill are now just a memory.

Alabama is remembering our military veterans who gave their lives on this Memorial Day. There will be a ceremony at the Alabama National Cemetery in Birmingham. Nearby American Village will have family activities all day long. Visitors will be able to meet actors playing George Washington and Patrick Henry.

American Village spokeswoman Melanie Poole says people who attend these events will come away feeling very patriotic…
“This is just a great family event. We encourage you to come; bring your children, your grandchildren. Help them learn about our shared history as Americans and tell the stories of our veterans and honor, remember, and thank those who have served.”
The Memorial Day holiday is also expected to help the economy along Alabama’s gulf coast. Rental bookings are outpacing last year. 2014 was a record breaking tourism year with an estimated six million visitors to Alabama beaches.

Three Alabama Veterans who received the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War will be honored today by the U.S. Postal Service.

A commemorative stamp sheet featuring forty eight living Medal of Honor Recipients who served in Vietnam will be dedicated in Washington, D.C.

One of the recipients being honored is retired Air Force Colonel Leo Thorsness of Madison. Thorsness is a former President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He says there’s one thing all the recipients of that prestigious award have in common.

“Every Medal of Honor recipient, and I know them all, every one of them will tell you, ‘We all know people who were as or more deserving than we.’ I think the way I view it – we wear this for all those who can’t, and all those who served. It’s a great honor.”

Thorsness earned his Medal of Honor in April 1967. He engaged five Russian MIG fighters to protect two downed crew members, despite being critically low on fuel. Shortly after that mission took place, Thorsness was shot down and spent six years as a prisoner of war.

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