Memorial Day came early this year in Barton County and Great Bend.
On Tuesday afternoon, May 9, hundreds of community members of all ages lined the streets waving U.S. flags as the escort for The Wall That Heals passed through Claflin, Hoisington and Great Bend.
The Wall That Heals, a 375-foot-long replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., honors the nearly 8 million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. This replica travels across the country, accompanied by a mobile Education Center.
Looking back at the Vietnam War and that segment of our nation’s history is not easy, which may explain the need for a memorial “that heals” our moral and emotional wounds. Honoring veterans by seeing them and listening to them can be part of the healing process.
Generations of war veterans
The Wall that Heals memorial that arrived in Great Bend on Tuesday officially opens on May 11. It can be visited 24 hours a day through Saturday at Al Burns Field in Veterans Memorial Park. The closing ceremony will be at 1:45 p.m. Sunday.
Meanwhile, another event honoring veterans of foreign wars takes place at 11 a.m. this Saturday at the Great Bend Public Library. Murl Riedel, a retired major from the Kansas Army National Guard, will present “A New Generation of Veterans: Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan.” (See story here.)
Years ago, Barton Community College history instructor Linda McCaffery collected oral histories of World War II veterans. (McCaffery now works at the Barton County Historical Society Museum.) In 2011, she published a book about one of her oral history subjects, Dr. Bill Brenner of Larned, a former U.S. Army doctor who was taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.
Seeing veterans and listening to them can be a great way to learn and preserve history lessons.
We’re reminded of the words attributed to the late Debbie Berkley, founder of the Golden Plains Quilts of Valor group. Berkley presented Korean War veteran Melvin Shartz with a quilt several years ago and, according to his daughter Amy Schartz Mellor, Berkley told him, “You know, Mr. Schartz, those are years of your life you’re never going to get back. Uncle Sam didn’t ask where you wanted to go; Uncle Sam told you where you were needed. Every veteran that enters the service takes the same oath, up to and including your life.”
On Tuesday, the great community turnout to welcome The Wall That Heals was awesome and may well have been the respectful tribute that veterans did not receive those many years ago when they returned from Vietnam.
Thank you to all veterans for your service and sacrifice for our country.
