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GRUNDY, Va. â The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, will open to the public Thursday at Poplar Gap Park in Grundy. It will remain on display in Buchanan County through Sunday, May 9.
Opening ceremonies for the four-day event will be held Thursday morning at 10 a.m. Admission is free throughout the event.
Since its debut in 1996, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund exhibit has been on display in nearly 700 U.S. communities, according to a press release from The Wall that Heals committee. In April 1999, The Wall That Heals was on tour of the Four Provinces of Ireland and was also in Canada in 2005. The 2021 national The Wall That Heals tour is sponsored by USAA. Through a partnership with the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), the trucking industry and Blue Beacon, the exhibit is able to travel across the country. The Grundy stop, hosted by Riding It Forward Inc., is the third
Jesse Hill never forgot the reception he got after he returned from serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
“It still hurts,” said the Middletown resident in 2015. “Most of us were volunteers and to come home and be spit on.”
Hill spent decades making sure no other returning U.S. Army veteran ever again experienced the same kind of disrespect.
Hill, 72, who died April 28, founded the Bristol Township based Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans and served as its treasurer for more than 30 years.
He was the organizing force for annual Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day events to remember those killed or missing-in-action during the Vietnam War. He helped volunteers plant more than 60,000 American flags each year at the annual Flag Day memorial in June.
By Bill OBoyle boboyle@timesleader.com
In this Times Leader file photo, Retired Lt. Cl. Donna Nolter of Landsdale made the trip to The Wall That Heals in Plymouth on Saturday Sept. 7, 2019, to lay roses at the names of five members of her church Trinity Lutheran that died in Vietnam.
Times Leader file photo Listen to this
Times Leader file photo
TUNKHANNOCK Julianna Blaylock, Outreach Manager for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Wednesday said The Wall That Heals a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be displayed in Tunkhannock from May 13-16.