A Time to Heal

Author: Stan Deatherage | Published: May 14th, 2010


     On April 22, 2010, The Wall that Heals, which is a scaled down replica of the Vietnam War Monument, on the Mall in Washington, DC, came to the in Veterans Park in Washington, NC. The traveling ½ scale replica, of the novel and impactful Vietnam War Memorial in the United States’ capitol, was presented to this eastern North Carolina region in the Veteran‘s Park, along the duck and goose inhabited shores of Jack’s Creek in the inner city of the county seat of Beaufort County.



    The diminutive wall exhibition was escorted by the motorcycle club Patriot Guard Riders, who hail from Danville, Virginia. The ceremony initiating the Washington exhibition, which ran from Thursday, April 22, through Sunday, April 25, was well attended by veterans from all over the region, as was exhibited by the commemorative caps worn by our heroes, who live among us, who have fought our wars. And while the roving memorial commemorates the region’s 42 Vietnam War heroes, who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, I believe the wall is equally about those veterans from our nation’s wars who survived.

    The replica of the scaled down with dignitaries sitting in front of the wall, waiting to speak: Above. George H. Schryer served admirably as the master of ceremonies: Below.



    A number of these veterans spoke on that overcast Thursday before a large crowd spilling well over the portable viewing stands to the standing-room-only throng, which numbered well into the upper hundreds. Vietnam War era Marine Chaplain Bob Paciocco opened the service with a pray, and spoke of ministering to 400 of these names memorialized as inscribed upon that traveling wall. Chaplain Paciocco spoke of his replacement, Navy Chaplain Vincent Capodanno, when he rotated back home.

    Father Capodanno, when detached to the 1st Battalion 5th Marines near the village of Dong Son, was killed while his company of Marines was engaged in a battle with North Vietnamese Regulars in far superior numbers. As great numbers of these marines lay dead and near death, Father Capodanno continued to minister the last rites to his marines as the battle raged on and the Chaplain’s body riddled by enemy fire. Father Capuano perished from his mortal wounds, and was awarded, posthumously, our nation’s highest honor - the Congressional Medal of Honor for the gift of for his compassionate valor.

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    This article provided courtesy of our sister site: Beaufort County Now