(Radio Iowa) – What’s known as The Wall That Heals is being assembled today (Wednesday) in the Story County town of Nevada. The traveling version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will open to visitors on Thursday morning. Tim Tates, outreach director for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, says they’re expecting many thousands of visitors to file past the synthetic black granite wall in central Iowa over the next few days.

“We put on the road 30 years ago this year a three-quarter scale replica that travels to communities nationwide,” Tates says, “giving the opportunity for people to have the healing that they get at the wall in Washington, D.C., have an educational opportunity to understand more about the war and how this memorial came about, and a deeper understanding of how our nation was transformed by the Vietnam veterans.”

Main Street Nevada image

A delegation of more than 160 motorcycles escorted the semi carrying the wall into Nevada late on Tuesday. Visiting the wall can be a very emotional experience, he says, ranging from grief to relief, to simply remembering the good times with those who have passed.”You get a greater appreciation and a connection to understand that here are the young men and women who put aside their lives to go off and serve for us,” Tates says, “and gave up their lives so we can have the freedoms we appreciate today, and that wistfulness that you get with understanding that what could have happened, and where would they have been had they not been taken from us?”

The replica wall is 375 feet long and stands almost eight feet high at its tallest point. It’s engraved with more than 58-thousand veterans’ names, on which many people do rubbings. “One of the unique things about The Wall That Heals is we also travel with a replica of the ‘In Memory’ plaque,” Tates says. “The ‘In Memory’ plaque was established in Washington, D.C. to honor the Vietnam veterans who came home and later died of illnesses and injuries related to their service.” The wall will be open around-the-clock from 10 A-M on Thursday through 2 P-M on Sunday, with Taps played nightly at sunset. This is the only Iowa stop this year.

The Wall That Heals – Nevada, IA