A color guard ceremony was planned at the display in Alexian Field Monday night. The traveling exhibit is a replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall. It salutes war veterans from Vietnam, World War II, the Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The exhibit also includes tributes to public safety officers who've died in the line of duty.
It is 20 percent smaller than the wall in Washington. But the traveling wall has the same big effect on veterans like Lee Hagan. He lost his best friend in Vietnam, and found Phil Emerson's name like he's done many times before in D.C."I'm always afraid to go to the wall because it brings back a lot of memories, you know. But I also think it does a lot of good for my healing," said Hagan.
It replicates the pain and hardship, the grief and honor, not only for Vietnam vets, but it also pays tribute to our soldiers lost in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts.On this Memorial Day, 85-year-old Robert Cummings, a veteran of World War II who flew bombing missions in the Battle of the Bulge, was there to remember his grandson, Ryan, killed in Iraq two years ago.
"So I guess it's worth it. We're still here, we're free. We wonder about our leadership sometimes, if they did the right thing, but we don't know," said Cummings.The 58,000-plus names on the wall are listed in a circle of sorts, starting with the beginning of the war in 1955 in the center, the names go on, all the way down the side of the wall.
When they pick up again back at the beginning, it is 1968. And it ends, back in the center, with the end of the war in 1975.Ten-year-old Kijana Jeremiah etched the name of her grandfather, killed in Vietnam.
"Once I saw his name on the wall, I started crying, once I saw the whole wall with all those names on it, I already had tears in my eyes," said Kijana.