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Date Posted: Fri, February 04 2005, 11:50:26
Author: Larry Lusk
Author Host/IP: 66.214.61.187
Subject: Re: Virtual Wall
In reply to: Joe 's message, "Re: Virtual Wall" on Fri, February 04 2005, 4:11:40

Hi Joe,

Here is part of the problem as I see it and perhaps this needs to be a separate topic. First is the way the Wall is set up. Only by name and date of death and home town. There was no attempt to include anywhere in the data base the unit the person served with. I understand that there is a private (non-DOD) effort underway to attach at least a some unit designation to each name but this is proving difficult. Why? For some reason the DOD is not helping the effort and gives one the impression that they (the DOD) do not want this to happen. The Wall was deliberately set up so that it would be difficult for anyone other than a family member to find a name and I’ve heard several reasons given for this but the problem still remains. Because of this set up it’s hard for members of the same squad or platoon to find a name of a friend. We knew each other by our first, last or nick-name and sure we talked to each other about where we were from and what we had been doing back in the “World” but few of us kept an address book, at least those of us who were out in the field all the time. I kept a sheet of paper with the names and addresses of the men in my squad with me but that was kept in my pack and each time I was wounded the contents of my pack never came back to me. I left Nam with only the names and bits and pieces of information about the men I fought with in my head and there was a lot of strange stuff going on in my head at that time. Even now my Battalion Association is finding it almost impossible to find the names of everyone who served in the Battalion. The records are either not there and/or we are not being allowed to get them. If you question this I suggest you contact the 5th/7th Battalion Association (http.//www.cav57org/) and ask about the problem.

The second reason, at least in the field, was two fold. Replacement’s names were not remembered until it was safe to do so. For me it was if they were still alive after a week or so. Even then it was a long time before I wanted to know much about them. I was already stuffing away too much pain about the friends I knew who became KIA’s and I guess as a protection I didn’t want to make any new friends. Part of that process that I think we all took part in was that after a man was killed or wounded and left the field we never talked about him. He was gone as if he was never there. There were replacements that joined my squad and were killed within a few days and no one has been able to find out who they were. Sometimes in my nightmares I think names come back but I can never recall them later.

Joe, a remembrance could be put beside every name on the Wall but for many names it would be just words. I see your name and I thank you but I don’t know who you were or what you looked like or how you died. Those things are important, it says that this was a real person who had people who loved and cared about him and trusted him with their lives. Not just a name and a date on a wall. I've only been able to find two names and even with the help of my battalion associations records I haven't been able to find the other names and there were more than just a few.

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