800 Attend Vietnam Tribute at Riverside

Hundreds of visitors viewing a plexiglass replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Saturday touched inscribed names of friends and relatives and left flowers as a tribute to loved ones.

“I came here to remember,” said Orlando Romero, 38, one of about 800 people who visited Riverside National Cemetery to see the half-size model which is on a tour of western states. Romero was an Army infantryman for two years during the war.

The wall was created by John Devitt, a helicopter gunner who has taken his model from Texas to Alaska “to give people in the West a chance . . . to understand its power.” The model will remain here until Friday.

The ceremony at the 250-foot long wall included a speech by Elizabeth Barber, who lost a son in Vietnam, and ended with a candlelight ceremony honoring war dead.