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By Jim Belshaw
Ron Pasko says of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: “It’s like a black
magnet.” Like so many others, the vice president of VVA Chapter 209 in
Chicago cannot explain its power. He just knows he feels it. The Wall draws him
in.
“It has the same effect on the guys in our organization,
and it has the same effect on me,” he said. “I
have no idea what it is, but I always want to go there.”
On
Saturday, November 10, VVA will sponsor a huge parade on
the National Mall marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication
of The Wall. The event is expected to bring hundreds of thousands
of Vietnam veterans, their families, and supporters to Washington
in what is expected to be a seminal event in the history
of the Vietnam veterans movement.
“We’re expecting
the largest gathering of veterans in Washington since the
dedication of The Wall in 1982,” said VVA President
John Rowan. “We
are inviting veterans of all wars to join us as we honor
the men and women who served our nation during the Vietnam
War.”
The festivities will begin at 10:00 a.m. with
star-studded Opening Ceremonies at the parade’s starting
point on Constitution Avenue at 7th Street. The parade will
step off at 11:00 a.m. It will consist of individual participants,
including many prominent Vietnam veterans from all walks
of life; military vehicles; floats; motorcyclists; and marching
bands from around the country. The parade will end near the
Washington Monument grounds, where participants will take
part in a variety of events, including unit reunions.
The
parade “may be the last opportunity for Vietnam veterans
to gather,” Rowan
said. “We have no definitive ending date of our war
to commemorate like veterans of World War II and Korea have.
If we did choose 1975, the fifty-year commemoration would
be 2025. That’s a very, very long way in the future
for a generation of veterans that is now entering our sixties.”
HEALING,
DUTY, REMEMBRANCE, BROTHERHOOD
In conversations with many veterans who are coming to Washington
to march proudly in the parade, many words crop up repeatedly—healing, duty, remembrance,
brotherhood. Steve Gaddis, president of the Vietnam Security Police Association,
said 400 to 500 members and their families will be in Washington for the Parade.
The organization began planning two years ago to
combine an annual gathering with the anniversary of The Wall.
“Some
of our people have never been to The Wall,” he said. “They’ve
avoided it. But we have some folks who regularly wash The
Wall to help maintain it, too. We’ve been preparing
for this for quite some time,” Gaddis
said. “It’s remembering those we’ve lost.
Part of our mission is to preserve their memory and to preserve
our history. That’s what it’s
about when we go to The Wall. For us, it’s remembering
those who didn’t
survive.”
Charlie Hobbs, president of VVA Chapter 203
in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sees it as a duty, something owed
to his fellow Vietnam veterans. Three busloads of chapter
members and their families are expected to make the trip.
“It’s
a healing we all have to go through,” he said. “It
draws us back every time. I never get tired of going to The
Wall. Everyone’s
been touched by it.”
Chuck Valen, parade coordinator
for the 1st Signal Brigade Association, said about 60 people
from the association will come to Washington to march in
the Parade. He spoke of a “passion” about their
service that continues to this day.
“As part of the
association, the people are passionate about the contribution
they made to their country,” he said. “A lot
of us were 19 and 20 years old and even though I’ve
had a successful career since Vietnam, the two tours I served
there are probably the most important two years in my entire
58 years. The other dynamic is that we have brothers who
are on that Wall and not a day goes by that we don’t
think about them.”
Former Red Cross volunteer Maggie
Hodge said every time she goes to The Wall “something
happens.”
“The last time I was there, I was walking
with a friend, and I just happened to look down, and there
on The Wall was my surname, the maiden name I had when I
was in Vietnam,” she said. “It stunned me. Out
of all those names, it stood out. It was like a cousin saying, ‘Hello,
I was there.’ It
really touched me.”
Gabe Coronado, the Battalion Scribe
of the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines Network, said a reunion
had been planned around the 25th anniversary of The Wall
and that 100 people were expected to attend. “It’s
a unity of brothers,” he
said. “We’ve all shared the same experience.
We were young warriors at one time. We shared an experience
no other person has shared except for a combat vet. It’s
a brotherhood.”
One of those who cared for those combat
veterans was Vietnam War nurse Joan Furey, who today is the
Parade coordinator for the 71st Evacuation hospital. “The
whole experience of being in Vietnam and coming home and
having to deal with the atmosphere that was in the country
at that time was for most of us who served very confusing
and very conflicting,” she said. “Having to work
through that, trying to get people to understand that serving
in Vietnam was life altering was difficult.”
Much of
the difficulty was—and remains—the challenge
of explaining to those who never experienced the life-altering
circumstances of Vietnam the importance of what the men and
women did there and the impact it had on those around them.
Furey
sees in The Wall a validation for Vietnam veterans. It is
a testament that Vietnam veterans, at least as individuals,
had been part of something in which they were able to give
their best.
It wasn’t so much that they were extraordinary
people, but that they were ordinary people called upon to
do things that most Americans are never called upon to do,
and that they found within themselves the resources to do
it.
“What you did really mattered to the people around
you and what they did really mattered to you,” she
said. “The Wall is a venue for healing.
It brings all that emotion to one place where we can both
grieve and embrace the experience itself. The Wall was the
first place since the war that Vietnam veterans could go
and come together in a sense of joint purpose and pride and
also mourn the loss of people we served with, and to mourn
our own youth and innocence.”
Application forms for
individuals and groups who would like to join the parade
are available at http:
//vva.org/25thEvent/event_info.htm or by calling toll free
877-727-2333.
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