Wall set up for viewing
By BRIANNA SADLER, Staff WriterArticle Photos
Fact Box
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is a three-fifths scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.. It stands 6 feet tall at the center and extends about 300 feet from end to end.
-- The wall is comprised of 144 separate panels. Once constructed, the wall weighs approximately 10,000 pounds.
--The wall's visit to the Jefferson County Air Park is the seventh stop that wall managers Greg and Maureen Welsh have made so far this year. They have seven more to go, having traveled 10,000 miles so far and used about 800 gallons of diesel fuel.
-- The wall contains 58,000 names of the lost and fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War. They are listed alphabetically in the year that they were reported as casualties.
-- The wall was initially built in one year and takes between five and eight hours to reconstruct at each visit with the help of 10 or more volunteers.
-- The Vietnam War was the longest military conflict in U.S. history, spanning more than 16 years from 1959 to 1975; it was fought between the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the U.S.-supported Republic of Vietnam.
-- The U.S. sent troops to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing in 1965. Vietnam was reunified under Communist control in 1975, and in 1976, became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
-- Approximately 4 million Vietnamese on both sides were killed by the end of the war.
WINTERSVILLE - Volunteers gathered at the Jefferson County Air Park Thursday morning to help assemble the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall.
The wall was delivered to the airport Wednesday evening by a motorcade of 3,000 motorcyclists, and will be the focus of this year's Thunder in the Valley Festival.
Wall Managers Greg and Maureen Welsh lead the group of 30 volunteers from throughout the Tri-State Area through the process of assembling the 144 aluminum panels that extend about 300 feet from end to end.
The group began by lining the ground in front of the Cross Creek Township Police Department with a metal base. The panels were then slid into slots along the top of the base, and a brace that reached from the top of the panel to the ground was assembled behind each of the panels for support.
"We started at about 9 a.m. Thursday, and it takes about five hours to finish," Maureen Welsh said.
Each panel is kept in order by a letter and number combination.
The first panel that begins the "circle of life" is located halfway between the east and west end of the wall.
The top left corner of the first panel has an inscription that reads: "In honor of the men and women of the armed forced of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. The names of those who gave their lives and those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us."
Maureen said, that to read the names in order, one has to start at the center 1959 panel, the year in which the war began, and read the names in order to the east end of the wall, which is the right end.
The names pick back up at the west end, or left side, of the wall and are completed back at the center where the 1975 panel meets the 1959 panel.
"They complete the circle of life by reading it that way," Maureen said.
Each black panel is made of aluminum three-sixteenths of an inch thick and is powder coated. The inscriptions are highlighted in white.
Three separate companies worked together to build the wall for the Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard, located in Brevard County, Fla.
Met-Con Inc. in Cocoa, Fla., did the metal fabrication, and Precision Powder Coating in Melbourne, Fla., provided the powder coat. McCotter Ford-Mercury Collision Center in Titusville, Fla., provided the letter engraving to complete the wall.
"It took a year for the wall to be built," Maureen Welsh said.
Sam Sham from the Vietnam Veterans Support Group Chapter 1 of Steubenville was among the volunteers who helped to assemble the wall.
"I wanted to be here to carry my brothers' names," Sham said.
Sham said that one of the names he came to see is Fred Thomas Schreckengust, a good friend of his who had fallen early in the war.
"I was in Arlington Cemetery when they buried his remains, and I put his bracelet on his carriage, and I'm here today," Sham said.
A book holding a record of all 58,000 names on the wall indicates that Schreckengust can be found on the 1959 panel, line 54, Maureen noted.
The wall will be available for viewing until Sunday evening.
A dedication ceremony will take place Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., a send-off ceremony will be lead by Rev. John A. Beard of the Wintersville Baptist Church at 11 a.m. and a military honor guard will give a special salute before the wall departs, according to officials.
Any volunteers who would like to help disassemble the wall on Monday should contact Dolores Smith at the Jefferson County Air Park at (740) 264-5388.
(Sadler may be contacted at bsadler@heraldstaronline.com.)
