"I went to see Your Wall."

May 27, 2019, 7:42 PM

This being Memorial Day, I reflected on a letter to the Editor that I sent in, and got published in our local newspaper 15 years ago, upon the occasion of seeing the Wall That Heals. It is below, as published. I got just as emotional reading it again today as I did writing it 15 years ago.

"I went to see Your Wall."

I went to see The Wall today. Actually, it is only a half sized replica of the real Wall, but there is nothing half sized about the power it emitted. For those who have not seen, I am talking about The Wall That Heals, the traveling Viet Nam War Memorial National Monument.

I did not know how (or if) I would be affected by my visit to the Wall, I only knew that I did not want to miss the opportunity to see it. When I arrived, there were only a few people around. In one area, there were a couple of older white men who could best be described as "biker" type individuals by appearance. The expressions of pain and loss on their faces looked completely out of place on such hardened men. But, they wore them unashamedly in this place. In another area, an older black man kneeled, searching for a specific name. I found out the name was of his brother-in-law.

The longer I stayed, the more the symbolism of the Wall became apparent. The names on the wall are not in alphabetical order. They are instead in what appears to be random order, based on the date they died. As random as being in the wrong place at the wrong time to live, but the right place and time to die. This war knew no racial boundaries. It didn't care if you were rich, poor, black, white, young, or old. All were affected. Some were affected by living it in Viet Nam. Others were affected by having the war brought into their living rooms on a nightly basis. Families were affected by those who did not come home alive, and by those who did as well. Others such as myself continue to be affected by the loss of so many of our finest young people 30 years after the fact.

The Wall rises up slowly out of the ground on one end, and then tails off slowly into the ground on the opposite end. I find this again symbolic of a War that had no real declared beginning, and no real final end, only a hollow declaration of "Peace With Honor." Viet Nam veterans received a lot of this same denial type of treatment prior to the creation of The Wall. It was kind of like "Yeah, we know you were over there, but we don't want to talk about this one because we didn't come out smelling like a rose."

I even remember a lot of criticism of the Monument prior to its opening. "Just names on a black wall? What kind of War Memorial is that?" Come see the Wall, either the replica as I did, or the actual Memorial in Washington. You won't have to ask that question again. Thank You to all the Veterans who survived Viet Nam, and to the ones who didn't. I went to see Your Wall today.

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"I went to see Your Wall."

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Citadel Alum, on the Wall that Heals

A Salute to he and all the others that are emblazoned on

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