Replica of Vietnam Veterans Memorial to Visit

A 300-foot-long replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will make a stop in Ventura County next month, courtesy of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County.

“It’s equal to the experience of going back to Washington, D.C., and seeing the real wall,” said Gary Parker, first vice president of the Ventura veterans group. “People come and spend hours at the wall, remembering and trying to bring about some healing. It can be a very good experience. It can be very traumatic, very moving.”

The wall, half the size of its Washington counterpart, is made of metal panels bolted together. It will be assembled by Vietnam veterans and erected at the Ventura County Government Center at Telephone Road and Victoria Avenue. The monument will open to the public with a ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 10 and will remain on display through Nov. 16.

The ceremony will begin with a blessing by local Chumash Indians. Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), chairman of the House’s POW/MIA Task Force, will be the day’s featured speaker.

Ventura County veterans have sponsored two previous displays of the wall, and both times the reception was overwhelming, Parker said.

“We get in excess of 10,000 to 15,000 people during the week,” Parker said. “We’ll have Vietnam vets there 24 hours a day keeping a lookout for anyone having problems. It’s a pretty difficult situation in some cases.”

Part of the reason that the local veterans group pays the $5,000 needed to bring the wall to Ventura is to call attention to the issue of the prisoners of war and service members missing in action who are still unaccounted for in Vietnam.

Charlie and Jean Ray’s son, Jimmy, is missing in action. Both times the wall has stopped in Ventura, the couple traveled from their home in Santa Maria to visit for the entire week of its stay.

“It reminds me of my son and the people who served over there and the people who did not come home,” Charlie Ray said. “Seeing the wall gives me faith back in the American people, that now they recognize what these veterans did.”