A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is in Garner this week. Here’s how to see it.
A big American flag greeted the trailer carrying the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as it arrived in Garner Tuesday.
The 53-foot trailer will settle in Lake Benson Park the rest of the week for “The Wall That Heals,” hosted by the Town of Garner and Show N Tell Ministries.
The Wall That Heals memorial exhibit emulates the two 246-foot-long black granite walls of the original Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C. While it’s 75% the size of the original, it still features the names of over 58,000 service members who died in the Vietnam War that are engraved on its 140 panels.
In Garner, it will be open 24 hours a day starting Thursday until 2 p.m. Sunday, according to a news release. Admission is free. The park is at 921 Buffaloe Road.
The Wall That Heals and the trailer carrying it left Fayetteville on Tuesday and was joined by an escort of about 150 motorcycles on Main Street in Clayton. The group included around 40 Vietnam veterans riding through U.S. 70 to Garner, said Tim Stevens, the lead organizer of The Wall’s exhibits and its documentary filmmaker.
The Wall passed Clayton High School, where the school’s uniformed ROTC members welcomed it.
Garner Mayor Ken Marshburn, awaiting the caravan at Lake Benson Park, proclaimed it Vietnam Veterans Week, the town announced.
On Wednesday, 40 people, made up mostly of the N.C. State Air Force ROTC, will assemble the wall. At 375 feet long and 7.5 feet tall at its highest point, it’s expected to take about eight hours.
A hometown welcome
Just like the Vietnam memorial in Washington, visitors can make name rubbings of veterans’ names on the wall and take photos.
“The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund allows local veterans and their family members a chance to experience The Wall and honor and remember those who have served and sacrificed,” said Jim Knotts, VVMF president and CEO, on the exhibit’s website. “Hosting The Wall That Heals provides an opportunity for healing and an educational experience for visitors on the impact of the Vietnam War on America.”
It’s the first time that the Wall has been in the Triangle since before the pandemic. It was on display in Wake Forest in 2018.
Stevens, a former scholastic sports editor at The News & Observer, produced a documentary, also called “The Wall That Heals,” about North Carolinians’ contributions to the Vietnam War. His team is filming in Garner this week for his next project.
“This next documentary is about what effects its has on the (Garner) community and what it means to recognize Vietnam veterans,” said Stevens.
On Friday, a candlelight service will be held at The Wall at 7:30 p.m. with the help of Boy Scouts. It will be followed by a speech by James Johnson, a chaplain in Vietnam during the war.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., a special “Walk to the Wall” event will be held. Vietnam veterans will walk, ride in wheelchairs or be carried on a tram for a quarter-mile on Buffaloe Road to the memorial.
The plan is to have “more than 1,000 people lining the street to welcome them home,” Stevens said.
“They never really had a homecoming parade and were never really celebrated and we’re trying to recognize and celebrate them,” Stevens said. “The idea is to have almost like a parade. What I’ll tell them is that, ‘(You) don’t typically want to come do this, but I’ve got several hundred people who want to say ‘thank you,’ and they don’t fit in your living room. They want to say thank you for what you did.’”
The memorial will feature a “Hometown Heroes” section with photos of service members who list their home of record in the Triangle area or in the area where the memorial is being shown. There also will be an “In Memory Honor Roll” showing photos of local Vietnam veterans who returned home and later died of illnesses related to the war.
Visitors will be able to search for names using the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Wall of Faces database. There is an on-site directory to search for veterans’ names alphabetically. Group tours are available at select times.
How to see The Wall That Heals
When: Thursday, March 31 to Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m. The wall is open 24 hours a day.
Admission: Free
Where: Lake Benson Park, 921 Buffaloe Road, Garner
Info: thewallthathealsgarnernc.org
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 5:55 PM.
