Ceremony opens ?The Wall That Heals? in Washington

WASHINGTON, Iowa (GTNS) ? As the ceremony to honor the arrival of The Wall That Heals in Washington began, American Legion Riders? chaplain Barb Duder approached the podium to ask the crowd of people who had gathered at the All-Veterans? Memorial Thursday to join her in prayer.

During the ceremony held by the American Legion Riders, the numbers of people who lost their lives in Vietnam was made clear as rider Ron Northup read some of the statistics to the audience.

Northup said that in the Vietnam War, 58,282 people had lost their lives. He said on the wall there are three sets of fathers and sons, 39 sets of brothers, 16 chaplains and eight women. He said the youngest person on the wall, Dan Bullock, was 15. The oldest, Dwaine McGriff, was 63.

?Nine hundred and ninty-seven soldiers lost their lives the first day they were in Vietnam,? Northup said, obviously moved by the numbers he was reading. ?This next number really sucks actually ? 1,448 soldiers lost their lives the last day they were in Vietnam.?

As the ceremony continued, riders Richard Young and Gary Duder read the names of people in a 50-mile radius whose names appeared on the wall. A bell was rung after each name. There were 93 of them.

?Ricky G. Hall.? Ding. ?Lonnie D. Hartsock.? Ding. ?James E. Harren.? Ding. ?

Brandon Costner came to the event from Monmouth, Ill., to find his grandfather?s name on the wall. There was a tone of sadness and also of pride in Costner?s voice as he told of his grandfather, Army veteran John H. Costner, who was killed in Vietnam. On Costner?s right arm, a tattoo of his grandfather?s name appeared similar to the name on the wall. The name was on the sixth panel.

?It?s nice he was remembered,? Costner said. ?I don?t remember him, but there are a lot of photos and videos of him. He served his country and he did a good job doing it.?

He said he appreciated having a wall that could be brought to people all across the country, rather than making people go to a certain spot to see the wall.

?They can tell everyone about what was going on and that these people aren?t forgotten,? he said.

Ron Earll wore his American Legion vest embossed with the ?Screaming Eagles? patch of his former unit, the 101st Airborne. The Washington native said this was the third time he had seen the wall. He also had seen it in Richland and Denton. He served in Vietnam in 1970.

?It?s very nice,? he said of the wall. ?It brings back a lot of things. You look up names and thin of the old days.?

He said in the past he had looked up names of old friends who had been killed in Vietnam. He recalled his old friend Bob Harvey from high school. Harvey was one of six people from Washington County named on the wall whose photo sat in front of the podium during the opening ceremony Thursday.

?Everyone should see this,? he said, smiling as he looked at the crowd of close to 400 people who were beginning to sit down in the chairs that had been arranged in front of a podium at the All-Veterans Memorial for the opening ceremony. ?It?s very nice. My father and I both have our names on (the All-Veterans wall).?

Fauna Nissley found chairs close to the podium for the opening event for herself, her husband Denton, and their children Audrey and Jane. The young couple didn?t personally know anyone who had been in Vietnam. Nonetheless, they felt the need to honor the veterans was important. She marveled at the wall ? a one-half scale of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

?It is amazing that they are able to do something like this so people in small towns are able to see the impact it made,? she said. ?We didn?t know anyone who served, but that doesn?t matter. It is a big deal, so we owe them our respect.?

Nancy Rickerd of Lone Tree could hardly hold back tears as she visited the wall Thursday evening. She and her husband, both members of the Lone Tree American Legion.

?It is such a wonderful symbolization,? she said. ?We will probably never see the real wall. We have known a couple of people on the wall and it?s really touching to us. We watched the semi go through in Riverside. It just means a lot to us ? the people who gave their lives up.?

The name Dennis Dale Dautremont resides alongside the 58,000 other names on the wall, but to the Rickerds he is someone special. Nancy Rickerd said he had died less than a month after he had deployed to Vietnam. She said his brother Larry Dautremont had been chaplain of the Lone Tree American Legion. He died recently.

Nancy said she had never met Dennis personally, but Larry was a good friend. In his honor they found Dennis? name at panel 33, row 15, line 27.

?I think we all need to remember,? she said, not able to hold back tears. ?So many people gave up their lives for us. There was no appreciation. So many people gone ? I don?t think people realize what our veterans have done and that so many people have given up their lives for our freedom. They need to be recognized and appreciated.?

David Wilson of Grand Junction, Colo., was in the area on a motorcycle trip when he learned the wall would be nearby. He rode in the honor guard that escorted the semi carrying the wall into Washington. His brother?s name is on the wall.

Thursday evening, Roger Frakes, a member of the Patriot Guard Riders from Richland who was helping to find names on the wall for people, directed Wilson, his mother and his brother to the name on the wall. They looked at the half-sized wall cast from metal to make it portable. In white letters that look like lines on the wall to people before they get close enough, the name was there ? Bryan Lee Wilson.

Bryan Wilson was a staff seargeant with the 4th Infantry Division. He was killed Nov. 3, 1968, in the Pleiku Province in South Vietnam. While his home of record is Richland, the family is originally from Mallard. His final resting place is in Mallard.

A Navy veteran of the Vietnam War himself, where he served as an aircraft electrician, Wilson found his brother?s name on the Wall.

?He was a great guy,? Wilson said. ?I don?t know what else to say except that I miss him.?

The Wall That Heals will be at the All Veterans Memorial through Sunday evening. People will be available 24-hours-a-day to help find names and give information.