OFF THE WIRE
Jack Killion has complicated feelings about the Vietnam War, but he had a simple reason for standing in the rain next to a winding mound of dirt at Resthaven Memorial Park along Bardstown Road.
“Panel 03 West has got five of my friends on it,” said Killion, who lives in Rineyville with his wife, Linda.
Soon, atop the mound would rest a 3/4-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial — “the Wall” in Washington, D.C., that bears the names of service members who perished in the Vietnam conflict — that travels North America year-round.
Killion said he served in the Army in Vietnam in 1971. Now, he’s a member of Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle organization made up of veterans and their supporters. His membership, he said, is an extension of the camaraderie he felt Vietnam.
“The only good memories I have from Vietnam are the friends I made,” he said. These include not only the friends who roll with him on motorcycles, but the friends whose names he’ll search for on the memorial wall he was helping erect.
The replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display at Resthaven from Friday to Sunday. It was erected in Louisville mostly by motorcycle clubs whose members are also enthusiastic about preserving the memories of fallen comrades and friends from Vietnam.
They escorted the tractor-trailer carrying the memorial from the Love’s Travel Stop on Cedar Grove Road near Shepherdsville to Resthaven, driving their bikes through the chilly rain.
At the travel stop, the growl of the motorcycle engines — about 85 of them — drowned out the white noise of the highway. Most of the riders wore the common biker regalia: Bandanas, blue jeans and black leather jackets covered in patches denoting their clubs. American flags fluttered from some bikes.
Carey T. Christie, of Rineyville, said he lost a leg below the knee because of an injury from his time in the Army serving in Vietnam. Escorting the wall was a way to honor fallen friends and may help to mend the emotional troubles of Vietnam veterans, said Christie who belongs to the Viet Nam Vets Motorcycle Club.
“We all have a piece of us on that wall,” Christie said. “This brings back memories of the people from over there, but it also brings back bad memories.”
Christie said he hoped the memorial also would serve as a tool to educate younger people about Vietnam.
Upon reaching Resthaven, the bikers and others gathered alongside the base for a memorial comemorating Purple Heart recipients to the soundtrack of a lone bagpipe player. Moments later, the tractor-trailer was opened and pieces of the memorial were unloaded and placed on the wooden base.
The traveling memorial began in 1990 and is the provided by Dignity Memorial network, according to the company’s website. Made of faux-granite, the memorial lists every name found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. It has been to Louisville three times before, the last time in 2006 at Evergreen Cemetery, said Jim Caskey, the venue manager for the memorial.
Army Spc. Coty Marks, 21, missed Vietnam by a generation, but he still was moved to ride his motorcycle alongside Vietnam veterans and to observe the raising of the memorial.
“I’ve never seen the Wall,” Marks said. “Just to be able to see this is a privilege.”
Video:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110906/NEWS01/309060070/Bikers-escort-replica-Vietnam-memorial?odyssey=nav%7Chead
