Vietnam Vet says "We're All Brothers Now"

"We're all brothers in arms," said Emswiler, who visited the memorial in D.C. in 1995. "Once you go through something like that, there is a special bond, no matter your race, color or creed."

‘We're All Brothers' Posted 2009-04-03

Wall Unites A War's Living, Dead


By Pete DeLea

Air Force veteran Dick Lorette, 80, listens to opening ceremonies for "The Wall That Heals" in Harrisonburg's Ralph Sampson Park on Thursday. Lorette served in Vietnam in 1971-72.

Photos by Pete Marovich

HARRISONBURG - Vietnam veteran Alan Emswiler spent about a year stationed in Kansas before being deployed to fight in the war in 1969.

During that time, Emswiler was sent by the Army to several Midwestern states to serve as a pallbearer in military funerals for fallen soldiers returning from Southeast Asia.

Emswiler recalled one specific funeral where the widow asked the military not to use a hearse, but to escort the fallen soldier through town by hand.

"We carried it from one side of the town to the other," he said.

After about 16 funerals, Emswiler was sent to Vietnam with the 18th Military Police Brigade.

On Thursday, the 60-year-old Broadway resident was one of the first to get a glimpse of "The Wall That Heals," a traveling half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that's now set up at Ralph Sampson Park.

The exhibit will be on display 24 hours a day at the park on East Washington Street until 8 a.m. Monday.

Emswiler said he purposely didn't remember the names of the fallen soldiers whose funerals he attended.

"You can't remember the names," he said. "If you remember the names, it becomes too personal."


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‘We're All Brothers'