Showing posts with label Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Wounded Times tribute to riders of past riders after Melbourne Veterans Reunion canceled for 2020

Melbourne Veterans Reunion Canceled for 2020

Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Annual Reunion
THIS YEARS REUNION HAS BEEN CANCELED

Campers need to contact Wickham Park after Monday 4/6/20 to change your reservations to 2021

Thank You Doc R.

The Florida Veterans Reunion is one of the largest and longest running veterans reunions in the country.

2021 dates Escort April 11th Reunion April 15th - 18th
read it here

Since the Veterans Reunion in Melbourne Florida has been canceled, for the right reasons, I am putting up videos from past years.

All of the people showing up to escort the Wall are disappointed this year you will not be able to do it, so here is my tribute to you!
2012

2013

2014

2015

Also footage from that ride on this video
2016

2017

2018

2019

Sunday, September 2, 2018

More than 10,000 visit "Wall That Heals" in Wisconsin

More than 10,000 visit 'The Wall That Heals' in Crivitz
WBAY 2 News
By Cearron Bagenda
Sep 01, 2018

CRIVITZ, Wis. (WBAY) - More than 10,000 visitors have come to 'The Wall That Heals' in Crivitz since Thursday. Visitors are getting closure and paying their respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War.

'The Wall That Heals' display at the Crivitz Community Veterans Park

'The Wall That Heals' is a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The wall displays more than 58,000 names of those who gave their lives during the Vietnam War, and 1,500 names of unaccounted service members.

"I mean we've had people from all over the United States, it's a moment of healing, just to be able to touch that name of a friend or a relative. My classmate is on that wall and I’m able to walk up and say goodbye," said John Deschane, Crivitz Village President.
read more here

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Vietnam Veteran's Searched The Wall, For More Than Names to Him

Veteran, family look for names of dozens of friends on Moving Wall

By Lydia Goerner
Aug 21, 2017

“I guess my dad is one of the lucky ones because he had a very successful life,” Funfar said. But her father has struggled with PTSD ever since he left Vietnam at age 23. 
“I heard him tell another Vietnam veteran when we were at the wall, ‘Maybe we’re not supposed to forget,’” Funfar said.

Courtesy of: Kristi Funfar Barry Funfar finds the names of the men in his unit on the Moving Wall.
Kristi Funfar gained a better understanding of her dad, Barry Funfar, a Vietnam veteran, when they went to the Moving Wall together, where she learned that 111 people her dad trained with were killed in action in Vietnam.

Barry, a door gunner from 1968 to 1969, went looking for 39 names of the men in his unit who did not come back, but after he visited the wall he recognized a lot of other names. Barry didn’t find all the names of those in his unit because he became “overwhelmed,” Funfar said, but he made rubbings of the men who were his closest friends to send to their families.

“I got choked up just watching how it was for him,” Funfar said. “I don’t really have words to describe how sad.”

Funfar, who lives in Falmouth, said her dad explained that, “he’ll find a name that he remembers and then picture a face and picture moments. They never got to come home and fill their dreams and have a family.”

Barry completed 127 missions as a door gunner, firing weapons while aboard a helicopter. This job was so dangerous that door gunners were read their last rites before they went on a mission.

“He’s never said this, but I think it’s almost a guilty, ‘Why did I get to come home?’ type of thing,” Funfar said.
read more here

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Honoring Vietnam Veterans At The Wall in Longwood

This morning at the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall in Longwood Florida, I was thinking about how much the general public does not know about the Vietnam War.

Some say that Afghanistan is the longest war, but they are wrong. October 2001 to 2016. 2,381 lives lost. For Vietnam, there were 6,350 killed in 1966 alone. The highest death rate occurred in 1968 with 16,899.

Others talk about Iraq. That was from March 2003 to December 2011, officially anyway. So far there have been 4,502 lives lost according to ICasualties.com. About 3 million US service members deployed during these almost 15 years. 

The thing is, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, officially the Vietnam War started in 1964 and ended in 1975. Yet the first to fall on the Vietnam Memorial Wall was Richard Fitzgibbon on June 8, 1956. His son was killed in 1965 and I am sure the family felt the same pain no matter if the rest of the country noticed it or not.
US Servicemembers 8,744,000
Deployed to Southeast Asia 3,403,000
39,996 were just 22 or younger
8,283 were 19
3,103 were 18
12 were 17
5 were 16
but PFC Dan Bullock was only 15
and those are just some of the
244 received the Medal of Honor
153 of them had perished saving lives
and are on the Memorial Wall
997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam
Three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall
The thing is, even Vietnam was not the longest war for America.  It is the war that is fought against what war did to them.  That is the final battle of war and it comes because of it. This is a war that too many find acceptable to lose.

They fight side by side with everyone they serve with, doing everything possible to make it back home yet they do no want to bother anyone with their troubles, refusing to ask for help from the very people they depended on to stay alive in combat. 

This is a battle that is fought at home and they need all the help they can get. 

If you are a younger veteran, remember the ages you read above and then notice that just because they are older now, they can still remember what it was like to be very young and in a far away place. Talk to them.

Whatever you do, do not forget about them because they are the reason everything learned on PTSD happened.

UPDATE
More information on Vietnam Veterans that no one wants to talk about.

Older veterans appear to be at the greatest risk. Almost 70 percent of all veteran suicides were among people 50 and older, according to the study, compared with less than 40 percent among those 50 and older who did not serve.
The study estimated that those, like Reitmann, with high levels of war-zone exposure “had significantly higher rates” of what is now understood as PTSD, with 35.8 percent of men and 17.5 percent of women meeting criteria for current PTSD.
By comparison, research on Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans, according to the VA, suggests that 10 percent to 18 percent “are likely to have PTSD after they return.” 
Since 2012, 54 veterans who were patients of the Bay Pines VA Medical System took their own lives, according to spokesman Jason Dangel. Almost 700 veterans during that period attempted suicide. 

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Melbroune Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Wall Escort

Fabulous day for escorting the Wall into Wickham Park! This is the 29th year and great turnout.
Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Annual Reunion
The Florida Veterans Reunion is one of the largest and longest running veterans reunions in the country.
2016 dates are are April 21st to the 24th.
We welcome all veterans young and old at our event.
Vietnam Traveling Wall will escort into the park on April 17th and will be on display until the end of the event.
2016 will be our 29th year.
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial, The Some Gave All Moving Tribute, and other static display's are on display for the 4 day event. In 2015 we hosted aprox. 87,000 people. Their are also food and merchandise vendors and music every day.





































































Video should be up on this tomorrow.

Sorry it too so long but only so many hours in the day.