George Bull needed the support of two fellow military veterans — voices to urge him and shoulders to lean on — to approach the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
Next week he will have his local community behind him as he visits a half-size replica of the capital’s memorial, The Wall That Heals, when the traveling exhibit comes to Williamsburg.
Bull resisted seeing the wall for the first time. He knew too many names of the dead remembered there — high school classmates, his college ROTC instructor and 14 men killed the same night he was wounded in 1970 in Vietnam.
Bull left the war with his life, but could not escape the memory of the death and destruction, as much as he tried.
“I thought I’d just put it all behind me, but I couldn’t,” Bull said.
It took visiting the memorial wall years later to help him come to terms with his past. In tears, tracing the names of the fallen, Bull was blown away by a sense of awe.
Now he encourages other veterans to see the memorial in person as a way to heal and make a new connection with personal and national history.
They will have the opportunity to do so, if on a smaller scale, starting Thursday through the collaborative effort of the community.
At about 250 feet in length, The Wall That Heals is a formidable structure. Dedicated in 1996 by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, it is made up of 24 panels etched with more than 58,000 names of men and women from across America.
Of those who were killed, 18 are known to have spent a large portion of their lives in the area or listed Williamsburg or Yorktown as their hometowns.
Glenn Dill Mann was a graduate of the College of William & Mary who worked as an engineer with the Williamsburg Fire Department. Terry Alan Palm, a graduate of James Blair High School, earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Force Commendation Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Purple Heart in his eight months in Vietnam. Talmadge Horton Alphin Jr. was a charter member of the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums.
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Want to see The Wall That Heals?
The memorial will be open 24 hours per day starting at 10 a.m. Thursday through a 3 p.m. closing ceremony Oct. 13, at 326 Francis Street in front of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.
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Their names, and more, will return to the area next week, the latest in more than 350 stops The Wall That Heals has made across the country. It has visited Virginia four times but not yet made it to Williamsburg.
The Combined Veterans Organizations Committee – made up of American Legion Posts 39 and 1776, Disabled American Veterans Chapter 34, Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 1754, Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts 4639 and 8046 and auxiliaries, and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 957 and associates – took up the call to bring the exhibit here.
“Usually we’re involved in small projects. Important, but small. … This was a big undertaking,” said Bull, chairman of the group.
Bill Truax, who served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, crafted a letter last July to the three Historic Triangle localities asking for support, and help finding a location.
“I guess when I wrote it, I probably didn’t realize how big it would get,” Truax said of the project.
The City of Williamsburg, James City County and York County all pledged money to cover the costs associated with bringing the exhibit to the area, with additional support from the Combined Veterans Organizations Committee.
But The Wall That Heals, which also comes with a mobile museum when the walls of its ferrying trailer open, needed a home.
Colonial Williamsburg stepped up with a space big enough for the memorial and its components, as well as logistical support and items like generators to keep The Wall That Heals lit and open to the public 24 hours a day while it is here.
Truax explained some visitors might feel more comfortable coming to see the memorial at night, which is why the exhibit has such generous hours.
After a police and motorcycle escort bring the exhibit into town Tuesday, it will open to the public at 10 a.m. Thursday on the ground in front of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Then it will remain open for visitors at any hour through a closing ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday.
Jim Icenhour, a former James City County supervisor who was a pilot in the Vietnam War and is now a representative to the Combined Veterans Organizations Committee, saw bringing The Wall That Heals to the area as a chance for people who have not seen it yet to experience it.
Like Bull, he had trouble bringing himself to visit the memorial in Washington — a common story, he said, for Vietnam veterans.
“It took me a long time before I could go look at it,” Icenhour said. “It’s a very, very emotional thing. There are so many people that I know who are on it.”
Some veterans, he added, are not easily mobile and might have trouble making the trek to Washington.
Bull noted the memorial has meaning to more than those who fought in the war, and it provides a comfortable home atmosphere where relatives, friends and colleagues can go to remember and celebrate the lives of loved ones who were lost.
Volunteers will be at the exhibit at all times, standing guard but also trained to help visitors find names of veterans. There will be a tent as well with additional information, equipped to scan photos for the national initiative of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to match a face with every name on the memorial.
Bull hopes The Wall That Heals will also be an education tool to the community, a window into the war and its sacrifices.
“We should make it available for those people to come see the names, look back on that history,” he said.
When he left for Vietnam, his daughter was 18 months old. When he returned about a year later, she referred to him as “that man.”
“It stuck with me, how absent from her life I had been,” Bull said.
Now he takes his grandchildren to see the memorial in Washington and wants to make sure they understand what life overseas was like.
The Wall That Heals will arrive in town at 3 p.m. Tuesday, taking I-64 to exit 238, and then traveling by Route 143, Route 132 and Henry Street to the display site at 326 Francis Street.
Organizers hope for a large crowd to welcome the exhibit along its route.
Local veterans groups will help to assemble the memorial Wednesday in time for the opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday.
At the event, a Marine Color Guard led by the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums will present the colors, and the Combined Veterans Organizations Committee will lay a wreath. Retired U. S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1) and incoming Colonial Williamsburg Foundation President and CEO Mitchell Reiss will speak.
As part of The Wall That Heals’ presence in Williamsburg, the Williamsburg Regional Library will show the documentary “Return with Honor” at 2 p.m Oct. 11. Allan Carpenter, a Vietnam prisoner of war, will speak about his experience and offer comments on the documentary.
A memorial event will be held at the exhibit at 3 p.m. Oct. 12. There will be a flag folding ceremony as well as a performance by the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums.
The flag will be presented to resident Jennie Green. Her son Douglas Barton Green III, who graduated from James Blair High School, was killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.
After the flag folding ceremony, students from Jamestown High School will read the names of the 1,307 Virginians listed on the memorial. Audience members will have the opportunity to submit additional names to be read as well.
A ceremony at 3 p.m. Oct. 13 concludes the stay of The Wall That Heals, with remarks by City of Williamsburg Mayor Clyde Haulman.
For more information about The Wall That Heals, visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website.
