Photo By Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton | Members of the 108th Training Command (IET) Junior Officers Association pose for a...... read more read more
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FORT MILL, S.C. - Reliving lessons learned from past wars is an integral part of officer development. Many of the programs and services we have in today’s Army can be directly attributed to missteps and mistakes made in past conflicts. The important thing though, is that we learn from those failures so the future force will not endure the same hardships as those who came before them.
That was the premise the 108th Training Command’s Junior Officer Association kept in mind when they embarked on an emotional trip to the traveling “Wall That Heals” in Fort Mill, S.C., Oct. 19, for its semi-annual staff ride.
Throughout the journey, officers kept the words of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, close to them.
“It’s been said that these memorials reflect a hunger for healing. Well, I do not know if perfect healing ever occurs, but I know that sometimes when a bone is broken, if it’s knit together well it will, in the end, be stronger than if it had not been broken.”
Late 1980, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) held an open competition in which any U.S. Citizen, 18 years of age or older, could submit his or her design for a memorial to the brave service members that fought and died so gallantly during the Vietnam conflict.
By the end of March that next year, 1,421 entries were submitted; the unanimous winner, a 21-year-old undergrad student at Yale University, Ms. Maya Lin.
In her entry, Lin envisioned a simple marble wall as a “rift in the earth.” Not as a permanent structure but as a “moving composition to be understood as we move in and out of it.”
The permanent memorial, located at the national mall in Washington D.C., originally contained 57,939 names of military personnel who ultimately died as a direct result of their wounds during the Vietnam conflict from 1957 through 1975. Since then, more than 300 names have been added to the sculpture.
The wall, comprised of 140 panels of names, is oddly situated between the Washington Monument closest to the eastern most panels and the Lincoln Memorial to the West. Tim Tetz, VVMF director of public affairs, says the walls unusual position is due to the tumultuous periods in time that those two monuments represent and the healing that they provide to our nation.
“When this memorial was designed, it was thought that the Revolutionary and Civil Wars represented some of the toughest times in our nation’s history. Those two monuments were designed to help us remember and help us heal. That’s why the Vietnam Memorial was designed the way it was. To help us heal.”
The names on the wall are arranged as they fought, together. Starting at the center of the wall and making an almost circular motion, the names are listed in chronological order according to the date in which they received their fatal wounds.
In 1996, on Veteran’s Day, a half scale replica of the original monument was unveiled. This “traveling wall,” was designed to give those Veteran’s who don’t have the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., the chance to visit the memorial. The wall makes more than 30 trips per year to towns and communities across the country.
“We realize that not everyone has the opportunity to travel to our nations capital. Even as close as we are here in South Carolina, not everyone is ready, physically or emotionally, to make the trip to Washington. This is our opportunity to bring it into a community. Whether you are 2 years old or 93 years old and remembering the son or daughter that you lost during this conflict, this is your opportunity to visit the wall in a place that is special to you,” said Tetz.
Capt. Cherie Bolden, Secretary to the General Staff, 108th Training Command (IET), organized the trip to the memorial and says the lessons learned from the Vietnam conflict for her and her peers applies to the real world situations that officers deal with daily.
“When I think about Vietnam, I think about how some of the Soldiers returned and were unable to connect with the world. I feel those situations still apply to us here today, but it’s up to us as future leaders to make sure they don’t happen again.”
“When you look at the care Soldiers receive when they return from conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan, in the form of Military One-Source or the Yellow Ribbon Program, that care and those programs are a direct result of the hardships and lessons learned by the service members who honorably served in conflicts like Vietnam,” added Bolden.
During its five day stay in Fort Mill, close to 8,000 people visited the traveling memorial. Fort Mill lost 11 service-members as a direct result of the fighting during the Vietnam conflict.
Out of respect for those whose names garner the wall, silence is recognized throughout the memorial. But for those who served, or have lost someone close to them that served, silence cannot ease the pain they feel or quell the tears that are free to flow at the foundation of the memorial.
“This is my second time seeing the traveling wall. This brings back a lot of memories,” said local resident, John Gladden, a former chemical specialist who served in Vietnam.
Gladden, who previously made the trip to Washington, says he didn’t see the wall there.
“When you see your fallen comrades, your buddies’ names up on that wall. It gives you a kind of sinking feeling. Do you know what I mean?”
Tetz, in his closing remarks to the Soldiers from the 108th says this is the legacy that every person who has ever fought for this nation deserves.
“This wall has the name ‘the Wall that Heals’ because the founder wanted to create a memorial that could help us heal and cure that generation of things like PTSD. Through this we get to visit with folks from Vietnam or wars even earlier than that and help them realize that they are welcome with open arms. That’s the legacy that we want to bring here. Because of service members that served in conflicts like Vietnam, people like you and I who returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, are welcomed here with open arms and that’s a great feeling.”
The traveling “Wall that Heals” is funded exclusively by private donations from civic and Veterans groups, as well as individual donations. For more information about “the Wall that Heals” contact the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at www.vvmf.org.
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2014 11:23 |
| Story ID: | 145476 |
| Location: | FORT MILL, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 86 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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