For four days this week, DeVry University hosted a memorial for its students, U.S. military veterans and family members as an educational tool to open its national open house week.
A traveling Vietnam War Memorial known as "Bringing Home the Wall" was set up on the southwest corner of the university's campus Wednesday. The memorial's last day in town will be tomorrow (Saturday), before creators Dee and Tom Twigg pack up and take the creation to Phoenix.
The 46-foot long, 8-foot tall replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. includes all 58,129 names of veterans who died during that conflict.
Photograph courtesy of the Fremont Bulletin
The Twiggs created the replica in 1993 in St. Cloud, Fla., as an alternative for veterans, their relatives and loved ones of fallen soldiers who wanted to honor their memory but could not make the journey to the nation's capitol.
The Twiggs have been long supported by DeVry, bringing the wall to campuses across the country. Wednesday was the first time the wall had been set up west of the Rockies.
Dozens of veterans, DeVry students, residents, and their friends and family attended an opening ceremony at the university.
"It's unique for the university to have something like this on its campus," Garrett Yee said. "It really speaks to the spirit of the institution."
Yee, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and a member of the Ohlone College Board of Trustees, was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremonies.
Yee has been deployed several times over the years to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yee said while the nation's current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have recorded some 6,000 casualties, it is important to note that the Vietnam war had 10 times that number.
Yee also suggested those in attendance remember veterans who died from a result of what is now known as post traumatic stress disorder.
"While we think of those who were killed in combat, there are also those who are still missing," Yee said. "And that's something to think about. There are also those who came back from combat, but died as a result of the war after making it home. Today we remember those who didn't return home, and also those who returned home but took their own lives."
He added today the nation is still at war, and while it may not be Vietnam, Korea or both world wars, the United States has thousands of young men and women bravely serving the country to protect its freedoms.
"Whether or not you agree with the politics, one thing is for sure," Yee said. "We are a great nation with brave young men and women."
Wayne Anthony, director of public outreach at DeVry's Fremont campus and a Vietnam War veteran, said the Twiggs are very special people.
He reached out to the Twiggs earlier this year and helped them bring the moving wall to California.
"(Tom and Dee Twigg) believe in their cause," Anthony said. "They believe very deeply in the many brave men and women who lost their lives and who are listed on this wall."
Dee Twigg, 64, recalled how the wall was created in 1995.
The exhibit had originally started out as a coffee table Dee Twigg created in 1993, traditionally known as "The Missing Man" table. The "Missing Man" ceremony is conducted at formal dinners and other occasions.
Dee Twigg said the mother of a missing Vietnam veteran approached her at one of their "Missing Man" ceremonies in 1995.
The woman handed her a manila envelope containing her son's medals earned during the war two Bronze Stars for bravery and a Purple Heart for being killed during service.
The disabled woman told the Twiggs she didn't think she'd ever make it to Washington to honor her son or his fellow soldiers. So she asked the Twiggs if her son's medals could be placed on the table instead.
Dee Twigg promised the woman she would bring the wall to her, and she kept that promise in 1996 when the memorial was first presented in Ocala, Fla. Dee Twigg said the woman was in attendance that day.
Tom Twigg, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, said DeVry support the wall's journey.
"Our purpose is to educate children about the consequences of war," he said. "One day they'll have to make a decision to go to war, and we're going to want it to be an educated decision, not to just go with the flow."
To read the full article written by Wes Bowers and featured in the Fremont Bulletin, please click here.
