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Replica of Washington wall on display in Wadsworth
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, May 31, 2008
WADSWORTH: In a scene that could easily be used as a symbol of American patriotism, 3,500 people filled the heart of this city Friday morning to remember those who served and died in Vietnam.
The crowd included hundreds of Wadsworth schoolchildren, teachers, parents, grandparents and Vietnam veterans.
The attraction that brought out the crowd was the appearance of The Wall That Heals, a moving half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organization that built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.
The opening ceremony included a bagpiper playing God Bless America and Katie Morton directing the fifth- and sixth-grade choir from Central Intermediate School in a moving version of This Land is Your Land.
Wadsworth School Superintendent Dale Fortner told the crowd the event was a time for remembrance and reconciliation and said he hopes students learn lessons from their visit to the moving wall.
Mayor Robin Laubaugh said she
was ''absolutely overwhelmed'' by seeing the throng that gathered for the event.
''Wadsworth itself paid a heavy price,'' she said.
She reminded those at the ceremony that 13 of those who died in Vietnam were from Wadsworth — a dozen killed in action and one who is missing in action.
Erin Simpson, principal of Wadsworth's Lincoln Elementary School, said students at her school and others learned about the memorial in Washington this spring.
''They have a new respect for our country and for those who served our country and understand how lucky and fortunately honored we are to have what we have and the freedoms we have as a result of all those who served,'' she said.
Local veterans
Navy Vietnam veteran Roger Scritchfield, 60, of Barberton, helped escort the wall on his motorcycle into Wadsworth.
''It is nice to see people honoring people who have given all when we were over there,'' he said. ''Some of us gave as much as we could and some of us gave all.''
Dave Oglesby of Akron — who retired from the Army after as a sergeant first class after serving 30 years, including duty in Vietnam in 1965 — said he has visited the wall in Washington and a moving wall that came to Akron in 1997.
Seeing it, he said, is a way to say goodbye to friends who died in battle.
''When guys were killed,'' he said, ''you don't get a chance to say goodbye.''
One man's sacrifice
Gary Jackson, 58, of Wadsworth, left a photograph of Army medic Spc. 4 Roger Allen Pederson, of Elk Mound, Wis., with a note of thanks below the panel bearing Pederson's name.
The 19-year-old medic was shot and killed March 29, 1971, shortly after tending to Jackson, who had been injured during a firefight in Quang Tri Province.
Jackson, an Army veteran whose story was featured in the Beacon Journal on Veterans Day 2007, recently connected with the family of Pederson in Wisconsin and regularly talks to the soldier's mother.
He said he wanted to recognize the sacrifice Pederson made and share his story with others.
''It was kind of like leaving something with him,'' Jackson said. ''It's a good feeling.''
Rare experience
One of those most impressed with the wall was Cub Scout Zack Wojno, a third-grader at Wadsworth's Valley View Elementary School who wore his Cub Scout uniform to the ceremony.
''It's pretty amazing,'' he said as he approached the memorial.
He said he realizes that many people over the years have given their lives for all Americans.
''We probably aren't going to get to see it again in Wadsworth,'' he said. ''It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.''
Traveling nation
Cary Dees, site manager for the exhibit, said the wall is scheduled to visit 23 cities this year.
There are four other moving walls that travel the country, he said, but The Wall That Heals is the only one affiliated with the memorial in Washington, D.C.
Dees said that in three years of traveling with the wall, he has seen a lot of education take place and ''a lot of healing.''
The exhibit is open to the public 24 hours a day in the center of Wadsworth on College Street until 8 a.m. Tuesday, when it will be packed up and taken to Utah.
The computers used to look up names will be available only until 6 p.m. Monday.
For more about the memorial, go to http://www.vvmf.org.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
WADSWORTH: In a scene that could easily be used as a symbol of American patriotism, 3,500 people filled the heart of this city Friday morning to remember those who served and died in Vietnam.
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