The Wall

The Wall That Heals

The Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial

For Vietnam vets, a place of feeling

The Wall in D.C. evokes incredible emotion to those who visit. Its replica will be in Marcus Hook this week, and 'Nam vets are ready for it (Marcus Hook is located in Delaware County in Pa. It is located just above the state of Delaware.)

By Timothy Logue On the Delaware Times Paper Staff

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Marcus Hook - Well, it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for? In a word: US. They were fighting for us. That's the message from Delaware County Vietnam vets on the eve of the unveiling of the Traveling Wall in Marcus Hook.

"When I talk to kids about the wall, I tell them to respect the warrior," said Jack Mitch of Broomall, an Army veteran who was stationed 20 miles north of Saigon with the 86th Combat Engineers. " Because, just like soldiers from every war, we were following orders."

Right or wrong, those orders led to the death and disappearance of 58, 000-plus Americans and the wounding of hundreds of thousands more. The passions of the era ripped the nations in two.

Beginning Thursday, thousands are expected at Market Square Memorial Park in Marcus Hook to visit "The Wall That Heals," a half-scale replica of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"I first saw it in Indiana when I was went out to a big reunion, "remembered William"Glen"Loy, an Air Force veteran and former president of Delaware \County Chapter 67 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "I didn't think it would be as reverent or as moving as it was in Washington, D.C.," said Loy, who was stationed at U-Tapoa Air Base in Thailand near the Cambodian border. "But you get the same feeling as when you visit the D.C., wall. It seems like everybody has a relative or knew somebody who's on the wall," Loy said. "If not, it doesn't really matter. So many people are affected by just one name. Now think about what happens when you multiply that by 58,200." "It's overwhelming."

The Vietnam experience is closer to the surface for some vets, like Mike Moore of Ridley Park, Pa. Exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the First Marine Air wing in Da Nang, Moore was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. "You think everything in your life is going pretty good and then it comes back to haunt you 30 years later," said Moore. "But I consider myself lucky," he added, "I knew six people that were killed." The Traveling Wall has made it's way around the world and provides a unique opportunity to those unable to visit the original monument in Washington. Moore said.

The wall will give Loy, Mitch and Moore the chance to share their collective Vietnam experience with busloads of kids raised long after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

"Vietnam isn't really taught in the schools," Moore said. "It's sort of brushed over in an hour or two and the kids don't understand why we were there. I mean, it's kind of hard to explain the Vietnam War and the threat of Communism in a couple of hours."

Equally hard to explain is the animosity directed toward Vietnam vets upon their return home because of the popular conception that the U.S. shouldn't be involved in the war.

"When I was growing up, if you wore a uniform, you were proud of it," Loy said. "When I got back, the first thing I wanted to do was get out of my uniform. It wasn't long after that I started thinking 'We were fighting for nothing.' "

With no place to go for empathy or consolation, many vets turned inward, keeping their stories, opinions and anger to themselves.

"I was bitter when I came home, " Loy said matter of factly. " I was back with my friends but nothing had but nothing had happened to them and here I was, a full-fledged adult at 22. They were wearing fatigue jackets with peace symbols and had their hair down their backs. "I couldn't understand it." But Mitch said, " Outside of my family, I can remember just one other person that said "Thanks."

Like many vets, Moore's opinion about the war was changed by a personal tragedy.

"I had a friend who lost a couple of legs and that really affected the way I saw things," he said. "It was obvious to me, by that time, that politicians - and not the military - were calling the shots. It got to the point where all I wanted to do was stay alive and get home." "I thought it would help me out if people saw that I served in the Marines and was a Vietnam vet, "he said. "But I found that it was closing a lot of doors so, I took it off my resume." Mitch was welcomed home by protesters when his plane touched down stateside at Travis Air Force Base in California. "My parents used to send me clips from The Bulletin (a then Philadelphia newspaper) and that's how I learned things were changing back home, " he said "I was lucky to have loving family that kept in touch constantly and I was lucky to come home." "But it was still hard. Once I got back, I rarely talked about Vietnam. And after a while I realized we probably shouldn't have been there."

Neither Loy, Mitch nor Moore had any idea what a momentous outlet the D.C. wall would provide when it was dedicated in November 1982. "I wasn't too happy about the monument when I first heard about it, " Mitch recalled. "It seemed to me like they dug a hole, put up some slabs of stone, and threw some names on it." "Of course that changed 100 percent when I went down there. It was incredible to stand in front of the names and talk to them. It's hard to explain. Most of these guys were 19 and 20 years old. 'That's way too young to be dying."