The Dignity Memorial moving wall

October 30, 2:31 AMTampa Military Headlines ExaminerM Jessie Barczak

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Tampa Military Headlines Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

In 1982 John Devitt, a former helicopter door gunner and Army veteran, visited Washington, DC for the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and to participate in the National Salute to Vietnam Veterans marking the Wall’s debut.

"Before 1982 I never felt like I needed a parade or a memorial," he says. He had come to the Wall not expecting to like it, feeling it would be "a black gash of shame," as reported by some newspapers. Instead, the Wall changed his life and returned a sense of pride in his military service.

“The Wall” in D.C. is a dark grey granite caret punctuating into the lawn of the National Mall. When visitors touch its reflective surface, etched with the names of over 58,000 service men and women who died or are missing in Vietnam, the connection with the heroes is immediate.

Devitt was unemployed in 1982, and traveled to Washington with donations from family and friends. "There were millions of people who would never be able to come to Washington," he realized, "I wanted them to be able see and feel what I had."

Devitt then vowed to share that experience with those who did not have the opportunity to go to Washington.

At first, Devitt and his friends planned a traveling photo mural of the Wall, but the negatives were unusable. They decided then to build a replica of the Wall that could be taken across the country, for all veterans and their families to experience.

Devitt, Norris Shears, Gerry Haver, and other Vietnam veteran volunteers built The Moving Wall Dignity Memorial. It went on display for the first time in Tyler, Texas in October of 1984. Two structures of The Moving Wall now travel the USA from April through November, spending about a week at each site.

Scheduling the route of the Wall is a tough job and Devitt tries to be as objective as possible. Dates fill up quickly, almost a year in advance, and there are often schedule conflicts which prevent visits to certain events and locations. "When we started, it was much simpler," he says. "Someone would call and if I wasn't going to be somewhere else at that time, we would load things up and go."

In the eleven years since the Moving Wall has been in existence, it has been visited by millions of people, in over 410 locations. While the material of the Moving Wall has changed, its impact remains the same.

The first Moving Wall was built with plexiglass panels, with each name silk-screened. The photographic negatives of the names were made available by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organization responsible for building the original Memorial. When new names are added to the Wall, they are also added to the Moving Wall at the end of its season. In its present form, the Moving Wall consists of aluminum panels and is a half scale replica of the original.

On October 28, 2009, the Moving Wall Dignity Memorial made its way to Brandon, FL, with a motorcycle escort of veterans, families and friends. A candlelight vigil was held by the Veterans Memorial Museum and Park. Organizers provided pencils and paper for to make rubbings of the names etched on the wall.

Beth Rodriguez, general manager of the Hillsboro Memorial Gardens, said the wall gives visitors a chance to reflect and heal. “We are very pleased to be able to share it with the community,” Rodriguez told The Tampa Tribune.