Much to my surprise this afternoon on the way to an afternoon class, there was a big 18-wheeler rolling into campus being escorted by SCDOT, SHEP, Spartanburg County Police, South Carolina State Troopers, USC Upstate Campus Police, and military Humvees. As it turns out, it's "The Wall That Heals", a 250 foot traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial.

http://uscupstate.edu/about_upstate/40ye...x?id=10950

Soon after the 18-wheeler arrived, campus was flooded by several hundred bikers, most of which had USMC, POW-MIA, or Army flags on the back.

The memorial will be setup Wednesday and remain outside the Hodge Center at USC Upstate for one week.

Here's some pics I shot from my cellphone of things today. I'll go back Thursday with my good camera to get much better pictures.

These pictures are copyright me (georgia_tech_swagger), and may not be posted anywhere other than NCAAbbs and USMilNet.com ( Kev ) without my express permission.

Bikers Everywhere


The 18-wheeler with the memorial


Crane-erected flag from across east campus


Nice combination of big flag, all the flags of the military, and the smaller flags on each lamp post.


Closer to the crane-erected flag.

Always good to hear about the Moving Wall. I have a cousins' name on the Wall. My cousin, my youngest brother and I were in Vn the same year...1968. Gary Wayne didn't make it back.

RIP.

All these years later, it still hits home.

RIP Gary Wayne indeed.

Thanks for posting, GTS. The moving wall was in my hometown back in the late 90s over the 4th of July holiday, and since I moved up here to the DC area I've been to the big one several times.

I wasn't even born until after the Vietnam War ended, but it is still moving to see all those names, and all the items that are left at the wall by family and friends.

The moving wall came to my hometown back when I was in Jr. High (late 90s). It is a sobering sight. The Wall in DC is the same. I will always remember my dad (Vietnam Vet '69-'70) telling me not to talk until we were well away from the memorial.

There was a young man in my neighborhood when I was a kid who went to Nam and was killed. His mother still lives in the same house. And the Gold Star is still in the same window it was in back in 1967. See it on every walk around the neighborhood. I never went (they stopped drafting the year I could have gone), but to anyone who lived during that time, it's always sobering, and VERY hard to explain.

Good bless those who serve and those who have served.

Only two people have ever died for you -
1. Jesus Christ
2. The American Servicemember

BleedsHuskieRed Wrote:I will always remember my dad (Vietnam Vet '69-'70) telling me not to talk until we were well away from the memorial.

There's a sign at the Lincoln Memorial asking you to be quiet, but nobody pays it any attention. However, every time I've ever been to the wall, you could hear a pin drop. There is a sign asking for silence, but I don't think it's even necessary.

William Brooks Kiser

1LT Kiser was killed in action October 5, 1967, while serving with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Artillery, 9th Infantry Division.



Vietnam Veterans' Memorial

"Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight, I am the stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die." Mary Frye

Rest in Peace, Uncle Bill.

Panel 27E, Row 54

Several years ago, my wife and I were in DC. As a Vietnam Vet, we took time to visit the memorial. I just wanted to see it, but when I got there, I lost it. It brought back so many memories - my wife grab me by the arm to take me away, but I wanted to stay a little longer. You are right, you could have hear a pin drop except when two Vietnamese (at least oriental) guys walked through the area talking and not paying attention to where they were. Several vets there at the same time almost jumped them but didn't due to the reverence to the vets whose name was on the wall.

Proper pictures:

Thanks for the pics.

Thanks, GT.

Does anyone know the schedule for the moving wall? If so, will it be in the Cincinnati area anytime in the next couple years? I don't get around much anymore, and after two tours in Nam (67-68, 68-69) I have many friends and comrades on there. I haven't had the balls to make the Wall in DC, but if it makes this area, I am going to get over my anger and anguish and go to it. It will be very hard.

This looks like a different one than the one that I remember coming to my hometown back in 1997. It was set up to look just like the wall, just smaller. No semis or anything like that.

Looking around on the web, I found the website for that one.



They call theirs the Moving Wall, and their page mentions there are other walls out there, but say that theirs is "the original."

That one will be in Liberty, Indiana in Early September and in Miamisburg, Ohio later in the month:
http://www.themovingwall.org/skeds/08/schedule08.htm