Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall brings veterans together in Tompkinsville

Over a hundred locals gathered at the Tompkinsville City Park this morning to welcome the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall to town.

The wall is 300 feet long and filled with the names of more than 50,000 who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War.

“I’ve seen the wall before,” Vietnam veteran, Specialist E-4 Norman Clarkson says with tears in his eyes, “I was privileged to go to Washington see it and it still bothers me. It brings back old memories and I have PTSD so I relive this every night. I have for forty years. It’s something you never forget.”

The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is a 3/5 scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington—serving as a way to reach veterans and the families of those fallen heroes in their own hometown as some may never be able to make the trip to Washington.

Susan Turner, an organizer who helped make the traveling wall possible in Tompkinsville explains, “yesterday when our veterans came together in the processional they even said “we’ve been home fifty years and we’ve never been honored” so that’s what this is all about and as the wife of a soldier, it makes it extra special.”

Clarkson says, “everybody from that era knows what happened. Two of the men from here, I met while I was in Vietnam, I ran into them and talked to them and it’s just heartwarming to meet them again and know that they did make it back and you didn’t know it maybe.”

The wall will be on display at the park until September 23rd at 7pm, when a closing ceremony will be held.

“They’re away from their homes. They’re away from their families and I know what it was life when he [my husband] was gone for 12 months and we didn’t see each other,” Turner says, “I can’t imagine what it was like for these men who were in the thick of battle for over 200 days at a time. I can’t imagine.”

The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall—a way to finally honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and those who live with the memories every day.

“I’ve seen men here today and last night that I haven’t seen in 40 to 50 years. This probably doesn’t make any sense to anybody that’s never been there, but we’re just like one family.”

The wall is open to be viewed by visitors 24 hours a day until the closing ceremony.