[piano intro] - The Veterans Memorial.

The whole idea is not just to remember the men who died, but to remember the men who came back.

On Saturday around noon, two o'clock, maybe 11 somewhere in there.

We've got the US Marine Second Division Aircraft Wing Band coming.

There's about 50 of them and we're gonna have a parade.

We hope to have about a hundred Vietnam veterans and we're gonna put 'em on trams and in convertibles.

Band's going to lead the way right down that road all the way into the park down there, go out and have a little concert in the middle.

We have chairs for the veterans and if we pull it off, we will have close to 2000 people on the side of along the road coming down.

Vietnam veterans never had a parade.

They were never really welcome, but we're gonna try to do that.

- My name is Tim Stevens and this is Garner, North Carolina.

I grew up here.

It was a small town of about 5,000 people where everybody at the Piggly Wiggly knew my folks.

Garner has changed a lot since then, but despite growing to more than 30,000 people, we've maintained small town values.

My roots are deep here.

My ancestors farmed just outside of town for more than 200 years, and I can trace my community ancestors back for seven generations.

We're a patriotic community.

Our Garner Veterans Memorial is a perfect remembrance for our people.

There's no sculpted soldier, no gun, just red clay and granite tablets listing our dead and the stories of the wars that killed him.

A couple of years back, the small community theater I started, created a play by the eight men from our town who perished in the Vietnam War.

After the show, many Vietnam veterans stayed to talk among themselves, lingering to prolong the experience.

It was at that moment that the vision for bringing The Wall That Heals to Garner first appeared.

In the spring of 2022, the pandemic lifted its stark veil and we were finally able to get underway and we were excited to have the 82nd Airborne Division.

All American chorus perform in Garner to help us kick off the week ♪ I once was lost ♪ ♪ But now I'm found ♪ ♪ Was blind but now I see ♪ [military drum tattoo] - More than 100 motorcycles gathered in Clayton to escort the truck carrying The Wall That Heals the 10 miles to Garner's Lake Benson Park.

Hundreds of people lined the roads, waving flags and cheering.

Not for the truck but for what that truck represented.

Our boys had not been forgotten.

[bagpipes play Amazing Grace] [motorcycles roar] [sirens squeal] I first learned of The Wall That Heals while I was doing research for the play.

Communities all over the country bid to host the three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

The vision was to have dozens of our Vietnam veterans experience a real welcome home event with hundreds of people cheering, waving flags, honoring the men of Vietnam as they pass by.

This was something they had not experienced in 50 plus years since they returned from Vietnam.

The vision was veterans' faces streaked with tears.

- Never forget The United States.

- They'll be smiling with joy and perhaps some pride and relief.

- And whereas The Wall That Heals is a traveling three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has been escorted to the town of Garner's Lake Benson Park on this day, March 29 and it will remain on display 24 hours per day from March 31 through April 3 and thousands of people we anticipate will visit.

And whereas events are planned at The Wall That Heals to remember and to honor, to honor Vietnam veterans.

Now therefore, I, Ken Marshburn, mayor the town of Garner do hereby proclaim March 28 through April 3, 2022 as a week to remember and honor our Vietnam veterans.

[melancholy music] - Bringing the vision to fruition was like directing a play.

Setting the stage was a massive undertaking.

You would take 30 able-bodied people six to eight hours to assemble the 375-foot-long wall.

The 18-inch spikes that hold the wall had to be driven into hard-packed, red clay soil.

Each piece of the wall, some weighing 80 pounds had to be carried the length of a football field.

The Air Force ROTC at NC State volunteered for the task, but a couple of days before the big build, a late change of orders on campus meant most of the students were going to be delayed.

A call for help brought out the best of Garner.

Policemen and firemen, facility crews all came out to help build the wall that morning.

Before long, the ROTC members arrived just like the [indistinct].

The weather was cool, the work was hard but the spirit was warm as ROTC from State interacted with the volunteers from the University of North Carolina.

UNC folks talked about basketball games and the State people preferred to talk football.

Everybody laughed about spring breaks, but when the panels with the 58,281 engraved names began to be placed into the frame, the mood changed.

It was the sudden as a midnight visit from a military chaplain.

The names of the sacrificed were staring us in the face.

The crew also helped transform the wall's 53 foot truck into a museum.

The side panels of the truck were raised to reveal the displays about the Vietnam War.

The youngest Vietnam veterans are now 65, and part of the vision was to educate people about the war and about how our returning soldiers were treated.

Shortly after we opened on Thursday, it began to rain and it poured for hours.

Nevertheless, a few people came, some carrying umbrellas, others beneath ponchos and other rain gear.

There were 48 people who braved the rain between one o'clock and 5:00 PM.

Each was greeted by one of our ambassadors, volunteers who had come to stand in the rain during their shift.

They often outnumbered the guests but they were not going to miss their shift.

The ambassador rank swelled that night as many extended their shift by two or three hours.

"I love it," said one.

"Why should I leave?

I can't remember when I enjoyed anything more."

The day made me ponder.

Where did we get these people, people who will come stand in the rain, hoping to have a chance to help a stranger and then stay late into the night?

The only thing I could figure was that they must understand the vision.

The stage was set, but the challenges were just getting started.

The temperature was in the 70s on Friday and it was bright and clear.

There was a steady stream of guests.

Several small groups had booked tours during the day but small tours quickly became big tours as other people joined the group.

More than 900 people would take a tour of the wall during the week, the most ever at one site, excluding school groups.

The crowd swelled as we prepared for our candlelight service that night.

We had 30 minutes to set up 300 chairs, hook up the sound system, do a soundcheck, place flags, place wreaths, erect a platform, greet gold star families and instruct our military escort.

Our ceremony involved lots of people, lots of moving parts, and there would be no rehearsal.

Our folks would just have to find a way to make it work.

Dr. James Johnson, a Vietnam chaplain, talked directly to our Vietnam veterans.

- Most of the names on this wall were only a year or so out of high school.

And yes, it's been a half century since they were killed, yet has already been mentioned this evening.

Their lives still matter to these, their families and to those of us, their combat brothers.

The wall attests to this.

- Johnson was a chaplain who went with his troops into combat.

He sloshed through the paddies, slept in the mud, went hungry and was shot at.

- Many of you know about snipers, punji pits, jammed weapons during a firefight.

- He seriously suffers from PTSD.

He talked about hardship, booby, traps, ambushes, mortars and rockets.

He was sometimes graphic, and our veterans love listening to somewhere who had been there, - Loading the dead bodies of our brothers into evacuation helicopters as if they were logs.

We had no time to grieve.

We had no opportunity to process the loss that we had and continue to experience today.

[bagpipe plays] - At the end of his remarks, our gold star families and more than 700 people followed bagpiper Joe Brady and two drummers past The Wall by candlelight.

[bagpiper and drums play] Then if there were any dry eyes left they likely moistened as Craig Schulman the star of "Le Miserables", "Phantom of the Opera[, "Jekyll and Hyde" sang," Bring him home from Le Mis."

♪ Bring him peace ♪ ♪ Bring him joy ♪ ♪ He is young ♪ ♪ He is only a boy ♪ ♪ You can take ♪ ♪ You can give ♪ ♪ Let him be ♪ ♪ Let him live ♪ ♪ If I die ♪ ♪ Let me die ♪ ♪ Let him live ♪ - Our bugler, a Vietnam veteran, had to go to the center of The Wall, salute the names, about face and play.

[bugler plays Taps] He was unsure he could do that.

The wounds of Vietnam were still painful.

But he played beautifully and healed a little.

[traffic passing] They call it The Wall That Heals for a reason.

From the beginning, the vision had been to honor the families of our eight fatalities and to dispel the darkness with candlelight.

We had done that, but fulfilling the vision of the welcome home.

A walk to The Wall was going to be much more complicated.

The haunting question was, if our community would turn out to support our Vietnam veterans, if the people didn't come or the veterans didn't participate, it would be worse than if we had done nothing.

Those fears were unfounded.

[band plays The Marine's Hymn] 2:00 PM the 2nd Division Marine Aircraft Wing Band set out on a quarter- mile march from the Lord of Life Lutheran Church headed for The Wall.

[band continues] Behind them came more than 200 Vietnam veterans.

They came on foot, in wheelchairs and golf carts and in trams.

More than a thousand people lined the road, waving flags and cheering.

[drum tattoo] There were tears of joy and lots of healing.

"I never thought my hometown would do something like this for me.

Thank you," said Dwayne Mitchum.

[crowd cheers] [drum tattoo] The daughter of Jimmy Brown came from Waynesville to participate, said he'd waited 50 years for this day.

He finally was given permission to mourn and cry.

[drum tattoo] As the veterans entered the field, they walked between rows of Boy Scouts.

One very young scout kept repeating in his youthful high kid's voice.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you for your service.

Veterans, most in their 70s or older, smiled.

Essentially, everyone who saw the faces of the veterans had tears flowing.

Our community had experienced the vision that had taken three years to achieve.

- Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient Joe Marm, spoke on behalf of the veterans - From the war on terror.

And it's my honor to be here and I just want to thank you all for your service and thank you for Garner for doing this.

It's a, it's a great, great day and and a very humbling experience for me to be here.

Thank you.

God bless you and God bless America.

[audience cheers] - US Marine Colonel Samuel Lee Meyer told the veterans that their sacrifices would never be forgotten.

- Vietnam Veterans, this day is about you.

This Wall is about you.

These people are about you.

Thank you for your patience, for your perseverance, for your forgiveness, for your fortitude, for your love and for continuing to support a nation, that no matter it's flaws, has still allowed us to gather today freely, freely assemble, and celebrate your service.

We've got to remember that.

Don't forget, no matter how bad it gets sometimes, that we are here to serve this country because even with all its flaws, this is the best place in the entire world.

And I am proud, so proud to be United States Marine.

[audience applauds] I am proud to be United States Marine from this town that has been raised by all of you.

This community matters.

You are what makes this nation great.

Thank you for this time today and as we in the Marines say, "I will remain and we will remain, Semper Fidelis, always faithful."

Thank you.

[audience applauds] - Marm said the day was one of the greatest days in his family's history.

He'd walked to the wall with his father, a Vietnam veteran who survived the siege at Que Son.

♪ You raise me so I can stand on mountains ♪ ♪ You raise me up to walk on stormy seas ♪ ♪ I am strong when I'm on your shoulders ♪ ♪ You raise me up to more than I can be ♪ [orchestra plays You Raise Me Up] - The veterans lingered near The Wall as the chairs were collected, the flags removed, the stage and the speakers taken down.

The veterans didn't want the day to end.

On Sunday morning, a few scattered men came to The Wall.

They had little to say.

They knew where they were going.

They went to The Wall and stood or knelt.

They were typical of many veterans who really don't want to go to The Wall and confront the past, but they were drawn to The Wall.

They had come for the healing.

- When I left Vietnam, I got up on the ramp to go on a plane that held 300 some people and I wore my flack jacket until I got to the top step and I dropped it off and shouted for joy when we got out of missile range on that aircraft.

we were to fly to San Francisco.

They had to postpone our landing there and transfer us to a Marine El Toro Air Base because of protestors at at, at California.

Thinking this is the first time in my life that I've ever had anybody say welcome home.

- I was never, ever, ever welcomed home properly.

Having it, The Wall coming here to Garner and say Welcome Home by some incredible speakers and incredible vets who were there doing the same thing that I were doing or similar types of things.

Doing what we were supposed to do, what we were trained to do was why it was so important to me.

- Visiting The Wall here in Garner was, was extremely special.

As a Garner resident, it was important to me that, that the community commemorate those who, who we left in Vietnam.

I knew the experience of of The Wall but bringing it to my hometown with another generation of people who probably never seen it and didn't know what it represent, was special.

- When the parade was talked about first, I got excited.

As we know we weren't welcome back to United States.

And in thinking about it, it was very, very emotional, but it was one of the highlights of my life.

'Cause we were welcomed by a lot of Garner people and a lot of other people.

So it was fantastic and as I said, very meaningful and a memory that I'll always cherish and never forget.

[piano plays The Star-Spangled Banner] - There had been almost 10,000 guests, two incredible ceremonies and thousands of tears, just like we had hoped.

The event was over, but not it's impact.

[piano continues] ♪ ♪