The traveling replica of the Vietnam Memorial came to the town I live in on Oct. 2, 2010.
The wall is dedicated to the veterans of the Vietnam War and honors all U.S. servicemen and women.
The location of the exhibit in our town was doubly poignant, as the field where it was set up was named after a local resident and fireman, who lost his life in the 9/11 tragedy in nearby New York City.

It was a bright and beautiful fall day and the memorial gleamed in the sun.
There was a small crowd of all ages at the site and they moved around the memorial quietly.
Most were searching the list of names for someone they recognized and then taking rubbings of names of family members or friends. However, unlike any other war memorial I have ever seen, the one thing everybody did was to walk right up to the memorial and touch the names on the wall.
The physical need to reach out and somehow connect with the loved ones who never got to live the full measure of their lives seemed overwhelming.
As the day waned, and I stood next to the wall, the heat that the sun had imparted began to radiate from the wall itself.
When I reached out to touch the wall, I could feel the warmth and the names somehow felt alive.
It was a moving experience.

One boy I knew from elementary school died in Vietnam.
My brother was in the Army at the time and during the war my husband was there in the Merchant Marine.
The long list of names on the wall was sobering and made me think about how tragic it was that so many young lives were ended before they had a chance to become husbands, fathers and just friends.
If you have the opportunity to see the memorial in Washington, or the traveling replica, I urge you to take the time to experience it.
When you see and touch the names, you will be helping the young people that the names represent to live on in our memories.

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