The Wall That Heals arrived in Wake Forest Tuesday in a procession from Youngsville to Rolesville and Wake Forest that left many people in tears.
It was erected Wednesday (today) in the open fields at E. Carroll Joyner Park on Harris Road and will open for visitors at 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, and remain open 24 hours a day until 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21. The exhibit is free and open to every one.
The official welcoming ceremony will be at 4 p.m. Thursday near The Wall exhibit, and one of the highlights, given good weather, will be a flyover by the Bandit Flight Team from Raleigh. The flight team is a group of highly trained, experienced pilots that combine their love of flying with an appreciation for vintage military aircraft. The Bandits fly their aircraft to preserve the military Warbird heritage and as an opportunity to salute returning war veterans.
Also as part of the welcoming ceremony, the families of three fallen whose names are on the Washington, D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial will lay wreaths.
Several events are scheduled as part of The Wall That Heals visit to Wake Forest, including free showings of “Etchings in Stone” Oct. 18 through 20 at 7 p.m. in the Joyner Park Amphitheater.
The formal Reading of the Names of all those on the Wall will begin at noon on Saturday. Also, the 38 North Carolina veterans who are unaccounted for will be recognized. There once were over 100 unaccounted for veterans.
To view the entire schedule of events, visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/schedule-of-events-2.aspx<http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/schedule-of-events-2.aspx>.
There will be computer information available with all the names on The Wall and where they are located, paper and pencils available for rubbings, videos and maps of Vietnam, and items displayed that have been left at The Wall in Washington, DC. The names on cards of all the North Carolina men and women who died during the war will be given to students and to anyone who wants them
There will be benches at a distance from The Wall That Heals where veterans who cannot face the names can sit and remember.
On Tuesday, the arrival route was lined in many places with people waving flags and cheering. The procession included the large tractor trailer holding The Wall, many law enforcement vehicles from the three towns, several first responded vehicles, Wake Forest Fire Department fire trucks, Wake Forest Power utility vehicles and various motorcycle groups.
The Wake Forest Purple Heart Foundation is hosting The Wall, a three-quarter replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Wall That Heals honors the more than three million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed forces in the Vietnam War and bears the names of the more than 58,000 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam.
Wake Forest has the honor of being the only town in North Carolina scheduled to host The Wall That Heals in 2018. Wake Forest is also among the first to host a new, larger exhibit, which includes a three-quarter scale Wall replica that is 375 feet in length and stands 7.5 feet high at its tallest point. With the new replica at this size, visitors will be able to experience The Wall rising above them as they walk towards the apex, a key feature of the design of The Wall in Washington, D.C.
This year, for the first time in the history of The Wall That Heals, visitors will be able to perform “name rubbings” of individual service member’s names on The Wall.
- In addition to The Wall replica, the exhibit includes a Mobile Education Center comprised of digital photo displays of “Hometown Heroes” – service members whose names are on The Wall that list their home of record within the area of a visit. The Mobile Education Center also features digital photo displays of Vietnam veterans from the local area honored through VVMF’s In Memory program which honors veterans who returned home from Vietnam and later died as a result of their service; video displays that teach about the history and impact of The Wall and the collection of items left at The Wall in D.C.; educational exhibits told through items in the collection; a map of Vietnam; and a chronological overview of the Vietnam War.
