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Date Posted: Mon, February 20 2006, 11:19:10
Author: Harry Larsen
Author Host/IP: 130.76.32.144
Subject: Re: The Wall
In reply to: Bob Flournoy 's message, "The Wall" on Sat, February 18 2006, 18:57:09

Bob,

I'm glad I didn't go there back in the '80's. From your circus description, it would have turned my stomach.

I did visit the wall in '98 with my family on a 5-week summertime cross-country trip by car. It was August and HOT and we approached from the White House side of the mall. We were camping and left our car at a station and took the train into the Capital. We'd done the White House tour earlier that morning and it was approaching lunchtime. We were trying to see as many monuments, museums, etc. as possible in our alloted 2-day D.C. stay. We had a map and were walking along. I was apprehensive as we drew ever nearer. You know, excited and nervous, not at all sure how I was going to react and thinking about it for several days and weeks beforehand. I'd read acocounts about the "black gash" and accounts of "healing".

I was walking fast, despite the heat, and was ahead of my wife and kids and setting the pace (forced march). Then I came to a bend in the walkway and saw the long black wedge and the trees just in front of it. I had to slow down. I couldn't push on like before. By the time my wife caught up with me I was bawling like a baby and she was there to lean on. It took me a couple of minutes to compose myself and push on. This time, my pace had slowed and we all approached it with reverence. I can't describe the wave of emotions that poured over me. Very powerful, like being at the funeral of a respected statesman, yet I felt a kind of peace at the same time. My eyes teared up a lot and I did a lot of nose-blowing.

I'd hoped to find the names of buddies, but my memory isn't the greatest. Besides, I tried to shut the whole 'Nam experience out of conscious thought for so many years that it's impossible to recollect names or faces any more.

We spent two and a half hours there. From the pictures we brought home (wife helped) I see that I was one somber guy the whole time.

Total time at the Lincoln Memorial: 15 minutes; Museum of Art: 2 hours; Smithsonian Flight Museum: 1 hour; WW2 and Korea Memorials: 10-15 min each; etc. I even wanted to go back to the Wall but our trip was constrained by time and places and people yet to visit (Tenessee, New York, Wisconsin, Dakotas, etc.).

I'd like to go back to D.C. again some day and spend a little more time at the Wall.

I've been to the moving wall once (last September) with my brothers and sisters. It was okay, but not the same experience.

Semper fi,

Harry

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