Vision from Washington DC will be in the city between June 5 and June 9
By Ken Magri
On June 5, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will come to Chico for a five-day visit. “The Moving Wall” is a half-sized copy of the original war memorial that sits on the Mall in Washington DC. The Moving Wall will be displayed behind the Chico Elks Lodge at 1705 Manzanita Avenue and remain open on a 24-hour basis through June 9.
Arrangements were made by Chico’s Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Chapter 582.
Security and counselors will be on hand at all times, as the Chico Vet Center will be providing their VA motor home and be ready to offer support.
“This Wall visit in Chico will be a therapy session for thousands, including affected families and friends,” said Chico resident and lifetime VVA member Bob Mulholland, who served in the US Army’s 101st Airborne division in 1967 and 1968.
The Moving Wall was created in 1984 by John Devitt, a Vietnam veteran who wanted folks who couldn’t travel to Washington DC to see it. Already viewed at over 1,000 locations, this replica has toured the country for more than 40 years.
About the original Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The original memorial was opened and first dedicated in 1982. A section of land next to the Washington Monument was donated by the US Government, but private individual donations paid for the memorial itself.
Its designer was a Harvard University student Maya Lin, who beat 1,400 other entries in a juried competition. Her concept of a polished black granite wall in the formation of the letter “V” creates a mirror-like reflection upon visitors as they look at the names of 58,273 service men and 8 service women etched onto that surface.
Lin’s design initially drew widespread criticism after it was chosen, due to a mean-spirited campaign by rightwing critics that exploited her Asian-American heritage. Opposition was spearheaded by then Interior Secretary James Watt. He said it looked like “a black gash of shame and sorrow,” and threatened to cancel the entire memorial project if the design was not changed.
Debates about the memorial became contentious, like the debates over our involvement in the war itself. Some complained it was unheroic, while defenders said its contemplative nature was designed for healing a nation.
But it was Lin’s own eloquent rebuttal about the quiet and honorable introspection her memorial would generate that changed public opinion. The critics relented and Lin’s design was finally built as she envisioned it. Since 1982, it has become the most famous and most visited war memorial in our nation’s history.
Then something absolutely unexpected happened after it opened.
Visitors began leaving poignant artifacts at the base of the memorial: Items like love letters, graduation photos, wedding rings, military medals, children’s stuffed animals and whiskey bottles became so numerable that the US Parks Service eventually opened a museum for these remembrances, concluding that they were too important to not be preserved for history.
Many visitors expected
“We expect 5,000 to 10,000 people to visit the site,” said VVA Chapter 582 president and Orland resident Warren Roll. “The Daughters of the American Revolution will have volunteers on site with an electronic list of all the names, the location of each person’s name by panel and line, which will allow many to trace a name on paper.”
Paper for tracing the incised names will be provided at the site for any visitors who ask.
The tradition of tracing names is another important element in Maya Lin’s concept. Originally asked to list the names in alphabetical order, she insisted on a chronological listing, asking who would want to find their “John Smith” within a long line of other Smiths etched onto a wall. If a visitor really respected the person whose name they were seeking, Lin argued, then the minute or two it takes to find that name in an on-site catalog would make the experience richer and more memorable.
The truck which transports the Moving Wall across the country will leave Chico’s Doubletree Hotel at 8:50am on Thursday, escorted by a caravan of cars and motorcycles. Once it arrives at the Elks Lodge, local volunteers will erect the wall.
And for many, the healing process will continue.
“The Greatest generation that won WWII sent the Baby Boomers’ generation (2.7 million troops), to Vietnam for an undeclared war that led to 58,300 Americans killed,” said Bob Mulholland, who was drafted into that conflict. “We did get an apology from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, but it all could have been avoided.”
VVA chapter president Roll mentioned that America annually spends $150 million a year to locate and identify the remains of US military for all past wars.
“Recently, the remains of former Hamilton City resident James ‘Stanley’ Mitchell, who died in 1943 in a Japanese POW Camp in the Philippines, was buried between his parents in the Los Molinos Cemetery,” Roll noted.
On Friday morning the Moving Wall will be officially opened for visitors with a 9:00 a.m. press conference. The VVA will put a special focus on the 58 troops that died in SE Asia during the Vietnam who were originally from Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties. Four of the 58 are missing in action (MIAs); two from Chico and two from Oroville.
After visiting Chico, the Moving Wall travels to Sonora for a June 14 “Father’s Day Fly-in” appearance at the Columbia Airport in Tuolumne County. From there it moves on to Michigan, Virginia and New Hampshire.
Great write up
I find the wall stunningly and solemnly beautiful. The names the names the names of men and women who saved our country by fighting for ours. The names honor them. The names are the wall.
I visited the wall to pay homage. My dad, an Air Force veteran, served two tours in Vietnam in the late 1960s and early 1970s then lived a full life. Thank you to Veterans and to military families.
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia (my hometown), in the Pennsylvania State House (built in 1753), which later was named Independence Hall created our first Military, the Continental Army, for the 13 colonies and George Washington was named as the Commander-in-Chief.
The American Revolution against the British lasted 8 years from 1775 to 1783.
While there will be 900,000 Americans celebrating their birthday on June 14th, the one most Americans should focus on is the 250th birthday for the U.S. Army. Later this year America will celebrate the 250th Anniversary for the Navy (October 13th), and the Marines (November 10th).
As an Army Veteran (101st Airborne, Vietnam (1967-68), I will post an Official Army flag outside.
Thousands of people visited “The Moving Wall,” at the Elks Lodge and my local Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 582 brought it here. A special thanks to the Elks Lodge for hosting the Wall and thanks to many Community groups and businesses who contributed and/or provided volunteers.