A Humbling Experience

This weekend The Moving Wall paid a visit to Sparta. It's a half size replica of The Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. I actually cried when I saw how big it is. Over 58,000 names of men and women that were killed. And this, is half the size of the original! Half! (The guy in the yellow shorts is NOT Jeremy - the and the little boy isn't JJ. I took the pic, but they were behind me.)
The Fallen Soldier Battlefield Cross.


PFC Daniel Benson Nolff, is the name we went to see. Our own family hero. He's Edna's brother. He died of his wounds from hostile enemy small arms fire on Oct. 29, 1966. His body was recovered and he is buried in South Boardman by my Grandparents and his two other brothers. He was in Vietnam for barely over 3 months. I have been to his grave site many times. This experience was very different. We left a bouquet of flowers and a prayer in honor of his memory...somehow that doesn't seem enough.

The poster board below shows an enlarged news article - I didn't catch the date. This collection of photos is one week's losses in Vietnam.

We watched a special on TV the other night, I can't remember the channel, so to us, seeing everything they had on display was pretty fresh in our minds. The men, the destruction, the loss of life, those who have never returned. We didn't even speak. We just looked.

They say there are 58,228 names on The Moving Wall Memorial. The saddest thing to me, is they're still adding more. 33 years later and we're still counting our losses...