LEAWOOD, Kan. -- A local Vietnam veteran recently took an unforgettable trip back to the country where he spent a tour of duty at war.

Gary Canant went to Vietnam with his family, his wife, Maxie, and his son, Kevin, who is an Iraq veteran.

Canant, a former Marine who now lives in Leawood, visited several battlefields along the demilitarized zone.

"You go back now and they're just a place, back then, they were battlefields," he told KMBC's Jere Gish.

At each battlefield, the family held a short memorial service. Kevin and his father played Taps and Maxie read a list of fallen soldiers.

Canant set up the trip himself.

"It was a way of remembering and honoring those who were lost. Not just Americans, but Vietnamese and everybody," he said.

Maxie said it was a moving experience for the whole family.

"I knew there were the people who fought beside my husband, and I was so immensely grateful," she said.

They also played Taps at the National War Cemetery in Vietnam -- the first Americans to do so.

Canant said there was also some danger -- on their way to one of the battlefields they came across a group digging for explosives.

He said he came home with a new perspective on life.

"A type of closure and peace, because it was finally saying, 'The war was over,'" Canant said.

The family also donated four trumpets to a Vietnamese school and met with a government official.

Canant said he plans to go back to Vietnam again soon.