Vietnam veteran and former U.S. Senator Jim Webb accompanied a group of Notre Dame students to a battlefield in Vietnam to show them the conditions firsthand.

He told Inspiremore.com the students “needed to see this.

“They needed to understand what it was like for the people on the ground, and particularly for the Marine Corps.”

While in Vietnam he says he bought a pair of dog tags from a local man for $20.

They belonged to Corporal Larry Hughes.

When he returned to the U.S., Webb contacted the veteran’s family so he could return the tags.

Webb had the rediscovered dog tags framed along with Hughes’ military ribbons, and they held a ceremony for family and friends to honor his service in Vietnam.

The family said it was the closure they didn’t even know they needed.