Two flags will fly over the newly christened Orange County Vietnam War Memorial.

Just as they did on U.S. bases in Vietnam during the conflict, the red, white and blue American flag and the yellow and red of the South Vietnamese will fly side by side.

The dedication ceremony Saturday included posting of colors accompanied by the national anthems of both nations, although one no longer exists as such.

To Vietnam veteran Jerry Gatch, the memorial project director, it seemed only natural.

American soldiers had fought for that country, after all, and the colors of the service medal awarded Vietnam veterans were taken from that flag.

Gatch didn't know why the South Vietnamese flag wasn't featured in more American Vietnam War Memorials.

Maybe they were designed by people who hadn't fought there, he said.

"This memorial was constructed by people who were in Vietnam," Gatch said.

Funding for the memorial, which is off of Interstate 10 just east of downtown Vidor at the Lyons Club Fields of Freedom veterans park, was all through private donation, and about 95 percent of the construction was done by volunteers.

Some Vietnamese-American Boy Scouts, headed by Bau Phung, were involved in the building of the memorial, and took part in Saturday's ceremony, raising the South Vietnam flag.

Phung, who had been an American collaborator, hadn't been able to get out in time and was imprisoned for a time after the American troop withdrawal in 1975. However, he eventually emigrated, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1985.

After all the speeches had been given and the ribbon was cut, Phung stood chatting with a veteran eager to talk about his memories of Vietnam, seeming to recall certain towns and regions with affection.

Phung, 54, said he was honored to help out with the project, and it felt good to remember those who died fighting for his country.

"Part of that is something still inside my heart," he said, groping for the words to express his feelings for the way that the memorial and ceremony fulfilled a little bit of an old debt.