The Moving Vietnam Wall was here in Omaha for the last week at Memorial Park and I went to see it on Sunday around 10:30 p.m. It was its last night here and I could not get it out of my mind and knew I had to go see it. There was only one other person there when I arrived other than the former Vietnam Veteran who was there to answer questions, etc. He said that huge crowds of people have been there during the week and he thought so few people were there now as they thought they we loading up that night for the next destination. I’ve been to the Moving Wall twice before, once in Omaha and once in Littleton, CO. Even though I’ve seen it before I was overwhelmed with emotions as I walked up to it. Even in the smaller Traveling form it seems so huge with over 58,000 names on it in white against the black wall.
The Vietnam Veteran there to assist told me where to find the four panels for GIs who died while I was in Vietnam. I know I was with many of them when they died or shortly after they died. Although I did now know their names I wanted to touch the names on the panel, pay my respects and say some prayers. After that I walked the length of the Wall saying prayers as I did. Later as I was standing there the Vietnam Veteran who spoke to me earlier who had asked if I had served In-Country and welcomed me home came and spoke with me. He said “You know, it’s not over.”. He went on to say he has Stage 4 cancer from Agent Orange and spoke about women veterans whose children suffer from birth defects as well as other conditions Vietnam Veterans face such as Diabetes. We then stood silently together for a few minutes. I then shook his hand and thanked him and left. I was so glad he had spoken to me and it brought such comfort.
You know, there is a song in the play “Miss Saigon” where one of the lines state “I’ll never leave Vietnam”. I don’t believe that a day has ever gone by that I have not thought about Vietnam, the people I was stationed with, what I did, saw, and especially those who were wounded or died. And I have realized some time ago that I have never left Vietnam, nor will I ever as it will always be with me.
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