Anguish

My grand nephew's face seems to depict the anguish I felt when I became overwhelmed with all the names on The Wall. To all those who have served, to all those who currently are serving - may we all find peace from the struggles.

POW/MIA Ceremony

I did not get to see it, but the veteran I spoke to at The Wall told me I could see the performance on YouTube. It is a ten minute video.    Lorain High School Army Junior ROTC - POW/MIA Table Ceremony.   The show was a couple of hours before we arrived that day. (The YouTube video is NOT at the Tuscarawas county location I was at that day.)

We also missed a huge group of bikers who were showing their respects to one of the members who died on the first day The Wall was on display.  He was coming to join in the biker rally for The Wall. I pass the spot where he was killed a couple of times - there is a POW/MIA flag, wreath and flowers.

The above display has 37 panels. One for each soldier lost from Tuscarawas County.

A moment for Tommy

The photo above is my seven year old great nephew pointing out one of the names that my brother-in-law searched for at The Wall. Let's take a moment for Tommy.

After his service duty, my brother-in-law went on to marry, work and raise a family. The American dream. He now has grandchildren. He brought his grandson to see The Wall and to thank Tommy. Because of Tommy, some of us live the American dream.  The lucky ones. Thank-you Tommy. On this day, you were not forgotten.

http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/19831/THOMAS-O-GREEN

You will always be a HERO

Looking for Jan

She had been kneeling there a long time and I was drawn to her. I went over and asked her if she had found the name she was looking for. She shook her head no, silently.

She had the correct panel, she just could not locate the name. I have circled his name - it is at the bottom right of the panel she is searching. I helped her locate the name. She would only tell me he was a friend. I did not ask for more. She did not want to talk and I let her be.

http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/37599/JAN-H-NELSON

Names

Over 58.000 names. My brother-in-law had a couple of names he wanted to search for. They give you a paper with the panel that the name is displayed on. There are two sides: East and West. His card would say W8, we would find the 8th panel. Then the name is number 124. There are dots on the side to count by tens. We counted down 120 and then you only have ten names in that section. The name you are looking for is number four into the section, but there are still so many it is easy to get lost in the sea of names.

We found the first one. My brother-in-law and I and his seven year old grandson. My brother-in-law told me the boy was 18 (the name we were searching for). He had to walk away and his grandson asked me where he was going. I said "It is very hard for him." My sister could not even come over. She said it took her husband a long time before he even talked about Viet Nam. She said that it was far too emotional for her to handle so she stayed back with the three year old grandson.

The above photo I made by taking a picture of the shiny granite display of three servicemen. It was facing the wall. I was able to capture the wall in the reflection and surprisingly - no people in the frame. The crowd had dwindled by this time.

Speaking to an organizer of the wall he said that an entire military group failed to show for the event. They were the ones who were supposed to guard the wall at night.

I have more pictures and more stories. These are too important to throw into one long post. I want to give each one a little bit of time and space here.