INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Vietnam War veteran on Monday said Americans should make sure to include fallen Black servicemembers in their Memorial Day remembrances.

Edward McFarland, who is Black, was drafted into the U.S. Army in the 1960s and served a total of six years. That included a stint in Vietnam. McFarland said he had two brothers who also served in Vietnam, one of whom was involved in the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. He said the sacrifices of Black servicemembers often get overlooked, particularly in popular memory.

McFarland was among those who attended Monday’s Memorial Day service at the Crown Hill National Cemetery Annex, a columbarium-only section on 15 acres that opened in 2022. He said he attends every service he can to ensure Black servicemembers are not forgotten. McFarland said the key is simply to remember them.

Monday’s Memorial Day service at Crown Hill brought together dozens of veterans of all ages and their families. After a keynote address by the regional office director of the Veterans Benefits Administration, the Indiana National Guard’s ceremonial units performed a wreath laying, a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.

According to the Department of Defense’s Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), more than 21,000 Black Americans have died in military service since the Korean War began in 1950. That number includes 3,170 during the Korean War and 7,267 during the Vietnam War. The DCAS does not have racial or ethnic data on U.S. military casualties prior to the Korean War. Historians have counted about 700 Black servicemembers killed during World War II. Records for earlier conflicts are less clear, but some numbers are known. The all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters, suffered about 1,400 killed, wounded, captured or missing during the summer and fall of 1918 in World War I.

“Just honor us,” McFarland said. “That’s all I ask during Memorial Day. That’s all I ask.”