The war and the Wall

Vietnam dead honored this weekend

Photo courtesy VVMF Two friends pause to remember.
Photo courtesy VVMF Two friends pause to remember.

Henry Don Mathews of Rogers was an Army sergeant who served with Company C, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 11th Aviation Group, 1st Cavalry Division, during the Vietnam War. He died June 19, 1969, in Phuoc Long Province and is buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery.

Robert Joseph Sabatini of Tontitown was an Army Specialist 4 who served with Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 18th Artillery Regiment, Americal Division, United States Army, in Vietnam. He died June 30, 1971, in Quang Ngai Province and is buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in Tontitown.

They are two among 58,318 names -- Panel 22W, Line 91 and Panel 3W, Line 96 -- on The Wall That Heals, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Wall, which at three-quarter scale stands 71/2 feet tall and is 375 feet long, will visit Northwest Arkansas this weekend. It's a collaborative effort that took a year in the making, says Andrew Heath, executive director of Downtown Bentonville Inc.

"Growing up on the East Coast, I could go to Washington, D.C., whenever I wanted," Heath says. "To be able to see a visual representation of all the people who gave their lives to make America what it is today -- not just in Vietnam but in all the wars -- always hit me really hard. But many in the heartland don't have that luxury and haven't seen a lot of the memorials."

Heath discovered the traveling Wall That Heals and suggested it in a meeting that also involved representatives of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The museum had the space to set up the Wall on the Buckyball Field near the entrance, and a plan was formulated. The Wall will be open to visitors 24 hours a day starting today and ending at 1 p.m. Memorial Day.

"As a community anchor and cultural institution, The Wall That Heals presented an opportunity to tell a uniquely American experience for all of us at Crystal Bridges," says Kash Logan, protection service director at the museum. "Being a U.S. Army veteran, I am especially honored and humbled to be associated with the effort to bring such a wonderful expression of respect to the Northwest Arkansas community."

There are other versions of the Wall, says Tim Tetz, director of outreach for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the nonprofit organization that founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982. But this is the only one associated with the Washington landmark, he says, and he believes it is the only one that gives visitors the experience they would have in the nation's capital.

"Every single week I go out with the Wall, we get to have some sort of experience," Tetz says. "I just packed up yesterday in Oakley, Kan., where I met a 7-year-old boy who took a tour of the Wall and was just enamored. He had these great red, white and blue, stars and stripes cowboy boots on, and on Saturday night, he brought those boots down there and left them at the apex of the Wall. It was an image of pure Americana, the epitome of what Oakley is about. And we have those experiences every single week."

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Go & Do

The Wall That Heals

When: Today until 1 p.m. Memorial Day

Where: Buckyball Field, near the entrance to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville

Cost: Free; donations are accepted

Information: downtownbentonville.org, vvmf.org

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NWA Names

Among the 58,318 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- and the traveling Wall That Heals -- are 36 from Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties:

Rex Wayne Blisard, Siloam Springs

Lesley Boling Jr. , Decatur

Roy Everett Couch, Cave Springs

Claud Albert Davis, Berryville

Bobby Joe Dunham, Fayetteville

Gerald Lee Evans, Eureka Springs

Terry Lynn Gilliam, Huntsville

Charles Phillip Glenn, Patrick

Hugh Lee Harrington, Gentry

John Daniel Ingrum, Springdale

Marvin Ross Keeter, Fayetteville

Robert Victor Kemp, Fayetteville

Jerry Don Lanier, Siloam Springs

Sanford James Ledbetter, Fayetteville

Roy Robert Lewis, Farmington

Marion Wayne Lyons, Brentwood

Bobby Gene McElhaney, Huntsville

Henry Don Mathews, Rogers

Edward Bruce Melody, Fayetteville

Virgil Kersh Meroney III, Fayetteville

Robert Stevens Mitchell, Rogers

James Edward Morgan, Garfield

Otis Eugene Plants, Rogers

John Edward Poole, Hindsville

Harmon L. Remmel III, Fayetteville

Eugene Lee Riley, Tontitown

Ronald L. Roehrich, Springdale

Robert Joseph Sabatini, Tontitown

Cary Hubert Siler, Hindsville

George Freeth Smith, Berryville

Neil Brian Sullivan, Winslow

Gordon Ray Tefteller, Elm Springs

David Dewayne Tettleton, Eureka Springs

James Lloyd Vaughan, Huntsville

Archie Leon Whaler, Siloam Springs

Howard Hugh Withey, Fayetteville

-- Source: vvmf.org

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The Wall That Heals:

By The Numbers

58,318 -- Names on the Wall

1,500+ -- Service members unaccounted for from the Vietnam War

8 -- Women on the Wall

375 -- The length of the Wall That Heals in feet

600 -- Cities visited by the Wall That Heals

22 years, 9 months -- The average age of service members on the Wall

15 -- The age of the youngest service member on the Wall

400,000 -- Items left at the Wall

31 -- Sets of brothers on the Wall

3 -- Sets of fathers and sons on the Wall

246 -- Most casualty deaths for one day, Jan. 31, 1968

-- Source: vvmf.org

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The Wall That Heals:

What You'll See

-- A 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., 375 feet long and 71/2 feet tall.

-- Names arranged in order of date of casualty and alphabetically on each day, beginning at the center of the Wall.

-- A 53-foot mobile Education Center, which includes a timeline of "The War and the Wall."

-- Displays that include Hometown Heroes, photos of service members from this area; a map of Vietnam; In Memory Honor Roll, photos of local Vietnam veterans who returned home and later died of Vietnam-related illnesses; a display of items representative of those left at the Wall in Washington; a digital kiosk that allows visitors to search for names; paper directories to allow for names to be found alphabetically; and the Gold Star Bike, a Softail Custom Harley that pays tribute to the mothers who lost sons in the Vietnam War.

-- Source: vvmf.org

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Photo courtesy VVMF Visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the traveling Wall That Heals leave tributes of many kinds to the fallen servicemen named there.

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Photo courtesy VVMF Thousands of Americans wore bracelets in the 1970s remembering servicemen who were prisoners of war or missing in action in Vietnam. At The Wall That Heals, a bracelet is matched to the name of a lost serviceman.

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Photo courtesy VVMF Just as they can at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., visitors to The Wall That Heals can make rubbings of their soldiers' names. Photo courtesy VVMF A flag waves in honor of fallen servicemen.

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Photo courtesy VVMF The traveling Wall That Heals also includes a 53-foot mobile Education Center, which includes pictures of local servicemen listed on the Wall.

NAN Our Town on 05/23/2019

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