More than 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War that ended nearly 50 years ago – their names are on the famous wall in Washington, D.C. Those names include 266 Montanans. Now, five decades later, the effects linger. Those killed in action left behind grieving parents and children and significant others. They left behind their brothers and sisters, too.

In the United States, there are only 10 organizations that officially work with the federal government’s office of refugee of resettlement. One of them is the International Rescue Committee – which has offices in only 29 U.S. cities. The smallest city with an IRC is Missoula, Montana. It all started because of a connection to the American war in Vietnam, which wound down 50 years ago.

After the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, which wound down 50 years ago this year, many Hmong families fled Laos and eventually settled in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. They adjusted to life there. Those already there had to also adjust to learn a new culture and help school-aged refugees assimilate.

After veterans returned from the Vietnam War, which wound down 50 years ago, they struggled to adjust. That’s been true for combat vets before that war and since. For Vietnam vets, a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t possible until the 1980s. More recently – around 2009 – psychological experts further refined PTSD with the term “moral injury."

The U.S. government spread the chemical defoliant known as Agent Orange over 10 million acres of jungle in Vietnam during the war that wound down 50 years ago. The purpose was to uncover the enemy's hiding places by clearing dense vegetation in the jungle. Soldiers who were exposed to it were told it was harmless.

In the Vietnam War that ended 50 years ago, about 2.7 million men and women served in the various branches of the military. To be sure, most of them were men. But the war affected many women, too.

Fifty years ago, the Vietnam War wound down and soldiers who survived it returned home. More than 36,000 Montanans served in the war. For the 50th anniversary of its end, students at the University of Montana School of Journalism spoke with Vietnam vets across the state. Here are their stories in their voices.