Replica of wall stirs emotions, memories of war
The 'Moving Wall,' which honors those who died in the Vietnam War, comes to Temple City.
Ernie Barbosa, a sergeant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, sat in the moonlight before a replica of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial -- 58,256 names etched in white that from a distance looked like serrated piano keys against a black expanse.
Sitting in Temple City Park, with Memorial Day approaching, Barbosa remembered taking his dad, a World War II and Korean War veteran, to Dodger Stadium after he retired and buying him a hot dog, a drink and some fries.
"Why the hell do you bring me fries for? I hate potatoes!" John Barbosa screamed. "I ate potatoes three times a day in the Army!"
The burly 43-year-old lawman laughed sympathetically, but moments later, he would wipe tears with his palm as he remembered other moments.
It was 2:19 a.m., Friday. And all around him, a handful of other volunteers stood watch over the memorial and waited for visitors to straggle in. The lights that had illuminated the white gazebo had flickered off. Plump waterbugs skittered in the darkness, and crickets chirped.
It was six hours into a round-the-clock viewing of the wall, which would last until Sunday evening.
The "Moving Wall" has gone through big cities such as Miami and Chicago. But for the most part, it has been relatively small towns like Guntersville, Ala., Little Falls, Mont., Liberty, Ind., -- and Temple City, population about 35,000 -- which have hosted the one-half scale replica.
Temple City welcomed the wall for the second time in 11 years early Thursday evening, under sunny skies. The 1st Marine Division Band played the national anthem and John Phillip Souza's "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
There were Boy Scouts and American flags and grizzled bikers and veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq. F-18 jets roared overhead. Young boys and girls strolled through the green grass, tracing names from the wall and interviewing politicians and veterans for school assignments.
Gerardo Miranda, 9, a student at Northam Elementary in La Puente, took pictures of names on the black wall with a digital camera.
"We learned that a lot of soldiers went to Vietnam and they died in the war," the boy said. "In school, they told me more than 58 million died. I mean, thousand."
Just a few steps away, Manuel Garcia, 59, a Marine corporal during the Vietnam War stood ramrod straight.
"I came because I could have been on that wall," Garcia said.
