Mobile Tribute to Vietnam War Dead Stops in Woodsfield

WOODSFIELD -- Veterans and patriots from near and far gathered this past week to greet the Moving Wall, a half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., when it made its way into the village with a motorcycle escort.

The wall, which commemorates the approximately 58,000 military personnel who died in the conflict, will remain at the Monroe County Fairgrounds through Monday, with a service held at 6 p.m. each evening.

Visitors walked along the wall Thursday, with some searching out a particular name and others taking in the enormity of the sacrifice and loss that is still felt today.

"I had relatives that fought in the Vietnam War," Ashley Guiler of Woodsfield said.

"We have a lot of service people in our family. We're just here to pay our respects," Robyn Guiler, principal of St. Sylvester Central School in Woodsfield, said, adding that many students were present to greet the wall. "We were up in the square this morning to greet them when they came through. They wanted to see the wall that everyone was talking about."

Children from the school also sang patriotic songs.

Woodsfield Mayor Mike Ricer was among the first to speak. He shared some of his own experiences in the conflict.

"I served my time in 1971," he said, recalling an incident as a member of the 5th Infantry Division in Quang Tri province. "One day we had 62 men buried alive by a rocket. It took us forever to get them out -- 29 of them soldiers did not make it. ... This is a moment that will lie with me 'til the day I die. Everybody has stories. This is one story I have never told. ... I walk through life with vivid memories of the not-so-distant past."

Afterward, Ricer said he expects the wall to have a deluge of visitors despite the rainy weather that greeted the morning arrival.

"They'll come from everywhere. The weather probably held us up a little bit today, this morning," he said. "Four more days we'll be here."

"I believe it'll be good for closure for families, and I believe it'll be good for closure of our fellow veterans. Being a veteran myself, we know the cost that's involved. Not like the 58,000 that are on that wall, but we're well aware of what it costs, and we appreciate what those fellows did for our freedom," Monroe County Veterans Service Commission Director Anthony McSwords said. "I hope the younger groups from around here, the younger generation, come away with a better understanding of what freedom costs."

"I have some friends of mine on there," Larry Coopshaw of Delta, Ohio, said.

Kirt Sloan, who works with the local VFW and helped to spearhead the initiative to bring the wall to Woodsfield, said the project has been a long time in coming to fruition.

"It started out with about a dozen people sitting around a table. Tonight we look at the culmination of a dream," he said. "Tonight is our field of dreams. ... Honoring the ones that gave their lives and thinking about the families and the loved ones they lost."

He added there are many community efforts in the area to raise money for veterans who need assistance.

"We've helped a lot of people. We want to help a lot more," Sloan said. "Every living veteran of the Vietnam War needs to be recognized for what they've done."

Bob Welsh, commander of Post 87 of the American Legion, read a poem about the experiences of American soldiers in Vietnam and the often poor reception they received upon returning home.

The service also remembered the 11 Monroe County residents who fell in Vietnam, including six from Beallsville, the highest per capita loss in any American community during that war.