I can't remember how many times I've traveled to see the Traveling Walls around the country. (Yes, there are more than one.) Each time there are tributes and memories left along with flowers and lot of tears. Yet none of these compare to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington.
This was the second time my husband and I went to the Wall for Memorial Day. We went with the Nam Knights out of Orlando FL. This year I flew up there while my husband rode the Harley with the Knights. When I arrived, I took a cab to Walter Reed. Being a Chaplain with the IFOC and the DAV Auxiliary has some perks and I was given a VIP tour.
I met many of the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan and thought back to what it must have been like for Vietnam veterans coming home, most about the same age as these new veterans.
The voices and smiles of the men and a young female MP I met stayed with me during the ride to the Wall the next day. We had a ceremony on the grass near the wall and a Park Ranger raised his bugle to play TAPS. As people stopped in their steps to stand in silence, it was almost as if all of the fallen had angels brining their lives into our hearts.
Today's veterans are not forgotten or shoved aside because of the legacy of the Vietnam veterans. Even now with many of these veterans taking leadership roles in service organizations, they build on their memories. What they lacked, they try to fill for others. What they were denied, they try to provide to others. What support they were hungry for, they deliver.
The Vietnam Memorial Wall is a giant "I'm sorry" from the nation to these men and women and an acknowledgement of their sacrifices. It is not about the war itself but about the men and women who gave all they had. It is not political but is personal and the tributes left there are from the hearts of those who carried them there from across the country. If you honor the troops serving today, then honor the men and women who taught this nation a lesson in honoring those who serve the nation no matter if you support the war itself or not.
Watching this video, I cried because it is a beautiful tribute to the Vietnam veterans and how they have captured our hearts.
Sent by email
Below is a wonderful video by the Pentagon Channel and it provides you with a behind-the-scenes look at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection. I invite you to take a look when you have the time. I am sure you will be as touched by it as I was.
The phenomenon of leaving items at The Wall is believed to have begun in 1982 when someone placed a Purple Heart in the concrete being poured during the Memorial's initial construction. Since that time, the public has continued to leave objects at The Wall and not just the traditional items left at other war memorials such as flowers and flags. Military objects that are customarily handed down from generation to generation such as medals, uniforms and dog tags have been placed at the Memorial, as well as teddy bears, poems, pictures, birthday cards, cigarettes and even a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
The National Park Service collects these items every night. The objects, which now number more than 120,000, are stored at the Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. These objects will be on display in a new facility being built by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. To learn more about the center, please visit: buildthecenter.org.
Sincerely,
Jan C. Scruggs
President, VVMF
Vietnam Wall Stories
Jan C. Scruggs
Founder and President
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Jan C. Scruggs is the founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He conceived the idea of building a memorial dedicated to all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam.
Scruggs was a wounded and decorated Vietnam War veteran, having served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade of the U.S. Army. He felt a memorial would serve as a healing device for a different kind of wound – that inflicted on our national psyche by the long and controversial war.
In May 1979, Scruggs took $2,800 of his own money and launched the effort. Gradually, he gained the support of other Vietnam veterans in persuading Congress to provide a prominent location on federal property somewhere in Washington, D.C.. After a difficult struggle, Congress responded and the site chosen was on the Mall near the Lincoln Memorial.
Serving as president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., the non-profit organization set up to build the Memorial, Scruggs headed up the effort that raised $8.4 million and saw the Memorial completed in two years. It was dedicated on November 13, 1982, during a week-long national "salute" to Vietnam veterans in the nation's capital.
His story of building the Memorial, To Heal A Nation, co-written with Joel L. Swerdlow, was made into an NBC-TV Movie of the Week in 1988. Actor Eric Roberts played the role of Scruggs.
Scruggs is a member of the Selective Service Appeals Board, a board member of the National Veterans Legal Services Project, and special assistant to the Chairman of the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 1993 he was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the U.S. Jaycees.
Scruggs is a native of Washington, D.C., and grew up in Bowie, Maryland. He received his BS and MEd degrees from The American University, Washington, D.C., and his law degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
