Memorial wall pays tribute to war's fallen
HAYDEN — A teary-eyed Sonja Johnson paused from viewing The Wall that Heals and reflected on not only specific military personnel who died during the Vietnam War, but all 58,286 listed.
The Hayden Lake woman viewed the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., at the baseball field next to Hayden City Hall not only for herself, but for her neighbor who lost her son Fred A. Exner during the war.
“We took a photo of his name for her,” Johnson said. “Emotionally, she just couldn’t come down to see it.”
Johnson has been to the permanent memorial in D.C., but said viewing the traveling replica isn’t any easier.
“It hurts to see so many names on the wall,” she said. “But it’s good that it came here because this is closure for a lot of families.”
Friday was the first official viewing day for The Wall that Heals along with The Wall of Remembrance, which pays tribute to those lost during the global war on terror and has a timeline of significant events from 1983 to this year.
However, interest in viewing the walls was so high that folks came as the structures were being set up on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to stop me, so I’m not going to stop them,” said Vietnam-era veteran Bob Dobek, who with wife Brenda set up the Vietnam wall for the 98th time with the stop in Hayden.
“This is like a family reunion involving friends and family you haven’t seen in a long time. It never gets dull or boring to me. Some come to try to relieve ghosts and skeletons. Guilt can be very overpowering.”
The walls will be on display all day today. There is no admission, although donations will be accepted to pay for operational expenses and a museum that’s being built next to the permanent Vietnam memorial.
Some who came to pay respect to those lost brought flowers, photos of their heroes, flags and messages that were left at the base of the walls.
“Thank you for our freedom and thank you papa,” a grandchild wrote.
Some touched the name they came to see and had a moment of silence. Others stood at a distance to reflect as they were visibly uncomfortable coming any closer.
A Vietnam veteran named Dick who is from the Silver Valley was a medic in the Army — he declined to provide his last name — said this is the first time he’s been able to view the wall after trying to do so in D.C. twice.
“My flight crew is here,” he said, fighting back tears. “I don’t know yet if this will bring closure. I just know that every day you wake up alive is a damn good day.”
The Wall of Remembrance encompasses a timeline terrorist-related events from April 1983 when a U.S. embassy was destroyed, leaving 63 dead to the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 this year.
The other side of the wall has about 11,000 names of those who died during Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn and during the 9/11 attacks.
“It’s amazing to see the pattern and history to the global war on terror,” said Mike Gordon of Post Falls. “I didn’t realize that it dates that far back.”
Ben Jones of Coeur d’Alene brought his family to view the walls to educate his kids about the sacrifices that have been made for freedom.
“I think there’s getting to be more and more of a disconnect between our future generation and the prices that have been paid,” Jones said. “We need to bridge that gap, especially when the reminders are in our own back yard. It’s awesome to have these here.”