The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is collaborating with the City of Edinburg and UTRGV to host “The Wall that Heals” on its tour Thursday through Sunday at the Ebony Hills Golf Course.
“We are known as a hometown of heroes, the City of Edinburg … one of the only cities with two Congressional Medal of Honor [recipients], Freddy Gonzalez and Pedro Cano,” said Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. “So, when this opportunity came up to host this wall that heals, I think it just goes with who we are as a city, and we’re just very proud of the opportunity to be able to host the wall here in our city.”
With the university’s help, the City of Edinburg applied along with more than 100 cities to host the wall, according to Letty Leija, director of library and cultural arts. The city is one of three in Texas to host the tour.
“It’s very important, especially this year because this year commemorates the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Vietnam War,” Leija said.
The wall is a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in Washington, D.C.
At 375 feet long, the exhibit is designed to bring 58,281 names of deceased veterans closer to their home communities throughout the United States.
“This is like a homecoming of heroes that the soldiers never received because when they came home from the Vietnam War, it was a strange political scene … and there was never a real ‘thank you’ or a ‘welcome,’” said Dahlia Guerra, assistant vice president for Public Art & Special Projects. “So, we feel like when the truck comes into town, we’re welcoming home the heroes.”
The exhibit includes 144 panels of names designed to increase in height as visitors walk alongside the wall.
There will also be a mobile education center, which has information about the Vietnam War and includes the “Wall of Faces” where visitors can input a veteran’s name and see a picture of them.
“It’s an opportunity for the community, especially the younger generation that maybe doesn’t have a lot of information about the Vietnam War, to be able to attend, learn a little bit more about the war … what the soldiers faced,” Leija said. “There was over 3 million brave, brave men and women that went and fought in the Vietnam War. Some of them were drafted. Some of them went by choice.”
A veterans committee, which includes participants from UTRGV, the city, volunteers and veterans, will meet with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund vehicle, that hauls the exhibit at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday outside the South Texas International Airport.
From there, members of the police force and other officials will escort the vehicle at 11:30 a.m. to Ebony Hills Golf Course.
“It’s just this big truck and it comes to town,” Guerra said. “… It’s accompanied by police cars, motorcycles and Vietnam veterans, and we’re going to have a helicopter flying all along the route. And then, the mobile unit parks at Ebony [Hills] Golf Course.”
Leija said at least 200 volunteers are needed for the event, with about 50 volunteers needed just for setting up and tearing down the panels before and after the event. The assembly process will start Wednesday and is expected to take about four or five hours.
Anyone who has a relative’s name on the wall can find the panel that has their name and volunteer to carry that section.
“Aside from setting it up, there’s other duties: general public assistance, greet and direct visitors, traffic control, helping at the Education Center, looking up names for the visitors on the wall,” Guerra said. “… Depending on your ability, there’s three- to six-hour shifts, but it’s whatever one can do. Also, we invite the community to bring school tours or students to come and see it.”
The official opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday. There will be a colors ceremony every morning at 7:30 a.m. and taps ceremonies at sunset.
“I’ve actually invited all the mayors of South Texas to join me in the welcoming ceremony of this wall,” Garza said. “… I wanted to invite them because there is an individual veteran that paid the ultimate sacrifice for just about almost every other community here in the [Rio Grande] Valley. I’m inviting the mayors so that they can be present in welcoming their resident soldier … [and] join with me, because, as I mentioned, we’re hosting here in Edinburg but it’s really about the entire region.”
To volunteer or to see a schedule, visit cityofedinburg.com/wallthatheals. For more information on the exhibit, visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website.
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