A somber Veteran's Day tribute

By Maurice Emery
Editor Emeritus

It started off as a cold, cloudy, windy Saturday. As afternoon approached people were walking along reading names and wiping their eyes. They were there to pay their respects to veterans lost in battles on far off shores. The wind was blowing the flags in all directions.

By late afternoon the sun had finally broken through the clouds allowing the shadows of the visitors to fall on the wall.

Parents whispered to their children to talk very low. There were senior citizens walking hand in hand looking for a name. There were young married couples pointing and kneeling as their little ones looked on. People of all ages, trying to protect their faces from the wind and looking intently to find a name among the thousands engraved on the wall. Was the intent quest for the name of a father, uncle, son or daughter? 

Suddenly they would stop and stare; you wondered if their search had come to an end. When they made the sign of the cross you assumed they had found the name they were looking for.  

Standing about 100 feet away were more people, pausing to look over the scene. They looked like they were preparing themselves to take the next step towards the wall. The scene made you wonder if they were trying to take everything in or just trying to get up the strength to make the next step towards the wall.

Three hundred and twenty five miles to the north a similar group of seniors, young newlyweds and people of all ages were walking along another wall doing the same thing probably having the same feelings. They were all paying tribute to a generation of young men and women who “gave all.” They were all walking along The Wall, a memorial to the men and women who gave their lives in Vietnam. 

Two different walls, one a replica of the other, provided the same opportunity for loved ones, friends and just passerby’s to pay respects and commemorate the lives of a generation of young men and women. In Washington, D.C., they were viewing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; in Fayetteville they were viewing the Traveling Wall. 

Traveling Wall is one of several replicas that bring the experience of the wall to communities throughout the country. It is an 80 percent replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., made possible by an organization of veterans called the American Veterans Traveling Tribute (AVTT).

This year is the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., more commonly known as The Wall.  So it seemed only appropriate that the Traveling Wall came to North Carolina a state that is represented by 1,606 names on the wall. It is even more appropriate that the traveling wall was within miles of Fort Bragg. 

Last week the Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks & Recreation sponsored the wall traveling exhibit in Festival Park in Fayetteville. The tribute to all veterans was at the Park from November 7 to Nov. 12. 

The Traveling Wall is 370 feet long and stands eight and one-half feet high at the center apex.  The traveling wall is one of several replicas traveling the USA. There is also a Moving Wall, Dignity Wall, and the Wall That Heals. To the credit of the veterans who own the Traveling Wall they provide the names of the over replicas in the handout literature.  

In addition to the replica of the Vietnam Memorial the exhibit also includes The Cost of Freedom Memorial (COF). The COF consist of nine table height stand up exhibits with recreated gold dog takes representing those who gave all. The COF includes all those who have lost their life defending freedom since Vietnam. 

You enter the exhibit area by walking over a foot bridge into the park. At the entrance they have an information tent set up to help you find the person(s) you are looking for. With computers doing the search they print out the information telling you where to look and providing critical information on the veterans. 

Across from the tent were several paintings of scenes from Vietnam and that era. Next to the paintings were several signs showing all the conflicts that the United States has been involved in from the revolution to today. 

You then walked up a gradual hill for about 100 yards to where the Wall was located. Along the top of the wall were the flags of the United States, various branches of service and several countries flags as well as the POW flag. The wind blew the flags in all directions. 

The traveling wall was completed in 1998 and began traveling the same year. They have been so well received that they have commitments to travel throughout the country into 2009.

The original Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVMF) is a nonprofit charitable organization that was incorporated on April 27, 1979.  It was the original brainchild of Jan Scruggs a Vietnam Veteran from the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.  His desire was to have a memorial that acknowledged and recognized the service and sacrifice of all who served in Vietnam.

The original Memorial (wall) was designed by an undergraduate at Yale University, Maya Ying Lin, born in Athens, Ohio in 1959. Her parents fled from China in 1949 when Mao-Tse-tung took control of China, and she is a native-born American citizen. She acted as a consultant with the architectural firm of Cooper-Lecky Partnership on the construction of the Memorial.

The wall has a total of 58,256 names listed. Three names were added in 2007. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing (MIA’s, POW’s, and others).

The American Veterans Traveling Tribute web site is: www.avtt.org

The Vietnam Memorial web site is: http://thewall-usa.com/