Viet Nam Traveling Memorial Wall

[jeffmo]

I was Honored and fortunate enough to see the traveling exhibit in my town today.
There was a very fitting ceremony and at the end the honor guard gave a salute and then the taps were played.
I hadn't heard the Taps played live since 1969 and that was at the funeral of a friend of my oldest brother who was killed in Viet Nam.They played sports together through school and hung out alot. My brother was still in country when he learned of his friends death through a phone call from my father and I know it was tough on him.
Before the ceremony I had gotten his name from the wall by doing a rubbing with a pencil and a piece of paper and it was almost haunting to read his name while hearing the taps again.
When my brother returned home he took me to an NFl exibition game at Ohio Stadium between the Bengals and the Browns.The announcer said that the attendance was about 51,000 people that day.My brother said "imagine all of these people being dead,that's how many died in the Nam".
That stuck with me from that day and today seeing all of those names on the wall made me feel the very same way again.Just such a huge sense of loss.

[ssiredfish]

Yea it will take your breath away for sure. When it came here we donated a ton of plants to decorate the end. I had to carry them all inside the tent they had setup because the driver said he couldnt bear to see the wall. When I got done and got back in the truck he was sobbin pretty good by that point. You know its crazy, here he is ballin his eyes out and I have another good friend who did nothing but surf everyday and maintain comms equipment while he was there.......