The Naperville community gathered together Thursday morning to honor the Vietnam Veterans at the opening day ceremony of the Vietnam Wall of Remembrance.
Visiting Naperville’s Vietnam Wall of Remembrance
“The wall provides a sobering, thoughtful, and solemn remembrance of the 58,320 brave military men and women who gave their lives in the Vietnam conflict,” said Bob Bronson, past commander and trustee of the Naperville VFW Post 3873.
“Many who will visit this wall this weekend, will undoubtedly see the name of a friend, a family member, a member of a friend’s family, or someone that they served with in the conflict. This week, Naperville remembers them all,” said Bronson.
“It brings back a lot of memories. Some good, but a lot bad. I’ve got 25 names on that wall that I served with that were really heroes. I mean, some of the things that they did in combat were unbelievable,” said Mike Barbour, Vietnam Veteran.
“Those whose names are engraved on the wall never had the opportunity to grow old. We don’t know them all, but we owe them all,” said Jim Oftedal, Chaplain of the Naperville VFW Post 3873.
Vietnam Veteran speak at the ceremony
“My dream was to fly because we’d see those old World War II planes fly over, leave contrails, and [we] always had a Jimmy Stewart movie at our local theater at Lake Park,” said Wayne Fischer, past commander of the American Legion Post 43.
“[I] was very fortunate to end up in the Marine Corps. I had no plans to go to Vietnam, but I had no choice that I wasn’t going to go. [I] flew the H-34 helicopter in Vietnam and based on our missions, our squadron lost 17 men in Vietnam. But this wall of remembrance enables us to think back and renew our comradeship. And you have to move on in life because the war is over physically but mentally it’s not,” said Fischer.
Honoring the service members who died in war
“We have 58,000 angels up there watching down on us today. We are truly blessed to have them with us,” said Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli.
“This right here is what Naperville does. We honor and we remember the service and sacrifice of our country and a community’s military heroes,” said Wehrli.
“And when I look over and I see these plaques that feature the names and the photos of our hometown heroes who lost their lives in Vietnam, I look at their birthdays and the days that they lost their lives, and there’s something there I want you to remember. If you look on any tombstone, there’s always a dash or a hyphen in the middle, and someone once said, it’s that part, that little hyphen, that little space between those two dates, that’s somebody’s story. That’s their life,” said Wehrli.
“And in this case, for these 11 heroes from our city, the last part of that hyphen was served giving their all in Vietnam. That devotion, that dedication, courage, and noble cost of freedom is something we can never fully repay,” said Wehrli.
The Veterans Day ceremony on Saturday will be covered by NCTV17 on Facebook Live, and will be available to view shortly after the event on our website.
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