Homer Pack Jr. calls it “The Healing Wall.”
Pack, 61, a Vietnam veteran from Akron, wrote a poem about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s Wall in Washington, D.C., on the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the wall five years ago.
Today, on the 30th anniversary of the dedication of the monument to the more than 58,000 men and women who were killed in Vietnam, Pack’s poem is part of a song dedicated to the wall.
A singing group from Buckhannon, W.Va, the Three Pack, made up of Rob Logar and Bill and Patty Cleavenger, recorded The Wall, using Pack’s poem, as a single about a year ago.
About 6 percent of the money raised through sales of the single goes to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
Pack, a Stow-Munroe Falls High School graduate, was drafted into the Army in 1971 and served a year in Vietnam, working at an ammunition depot in Long Binh.
“The poem is what I think and believe about the wall,” Pack said. “It is truly a healing wall.”
Pack has been to the wall twice and visits the traveling walls when they are on display in the area.
“The music is a bluesy-rock combo, a style appropriate to the Vietnam era,” Logar said. The song is “a thought-provoking, inspirational song remembering our fallen heroes.”
Groundbreaking on the new Education Center at the Wall will take place near the memorial Nov. 28
Pack, a retired construction worker, said “the wall itself is made up of the soul and character of every name on the wall and their families.”
One of the lines of the song The Wall is: “Remember us all, remember the wall.”
Pack said every one needs to always “remember the wall. ... It is a place we shouldn’t forget.”
To purchase the song for $5, go to www.threepackonline.com.
For more on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, go to www.vvmf.org.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
