Stacey
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- May 31, 2007
- Messages
- 192
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Nowhere, IL
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Hello! The Vietnam Travelling War Memorial Wall came to central IL this weekend and of couse I took some pictures! Some I've edited, some I haven't...some are blurry...some are not! 
There was a Veteran, I wish I'd gotten his name, who told us that the youngest age of a soldier in Vietnam was 16 (because some "fibbed" their age!) and the oldest age was 68 - and that was a man who volunteered to go back over and fight - a professional soldier, he said. He also mentioned that when the Vietnam Wall in Washington was being built, as the men were pouring the concrete for the foundation, a man in a wheel chair asked some of the workers to please carry him to the top of the hill (where they were working) because he'd heard they were building a memorial and he'd wanted to see it. As they carried him up the top of the hill, he threw his Purple Heart into the wet concrete. The workers got mad and asked him why he'd do something like that, throw his medal in the concrete...disrespectful, they called it. The man in the wheel chair said, "I'd heard you were building a Memorial for the Vietnam Vets and I knew it needed some Heart" and that was the reason he'd thrown his medal in the concrete. It's a documented True Story that there is a purple heart buried in the concrete of the Vietnam Memorial.
It was very moving to see and to hear the stories of the Veterans that were there....humbling, most definitely. Very emotional, very beautiful...it was overcast and cold though...and lots of people so....Enjoy.
1. They have a little "museum" semi-like trailer that houses things from the 60's and these were in there-
2. There were lots of flowers against the wall, so alot of my shots have flowers...I know they were a bit blown out...espcially the white! Sorry in advance!
3.
4. I do like my flowers....
5. Some of the kids from local schools wrote letters to the soldiers and they were put in ziploc baggies and lined the front of the Wall...Many of them were very moving...
6. This family had relatives that had died in Vietnam and they were taking pictures and laying flowers in front of the Wall...
7. I can't remember exactly what the 72 boots were for....I'm a little irritated that I can't remember!
8.
9. Again, part of the 72 boots, the Veteran told us that if a fellow soldier was injured, other soldiers would put his gun in the ground-if there was a helmet on top of the gun it signaled to medics that there was a soldier injured and needs help. If there was no helmet on top of the gun, it meant that the soldier was injured and unable to be saved.
10.
11. There were other boots on a table that were donated by service men & women who are currently serving in Iraq...these boots represent soldiers in IL that are MIA or POW
12.
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14.
15. God Bless!
There was a Veteran, I wish I'd gotten his name, who told us that the youngest age of a soldier in Vietnam was 16 (because some "fibbed" their age!) and the oldest age was 68 - and that was a man who volunteered to go back over and fight - a professional soldier, he said. He also mentioned that when the Vietnam Wall in Washington was being built, as the men were pouring the concrete for the foundation, a man in a wheel chair asked some of the workers to please carry him to the top of the hill (where they were working) because he'd heard they were building a memorial and he'd wanted to see it. As they carried him up the top of the hill, he threw his Purple Heart into the wet concrete. The workers got mad and asked him why he'd do something like that, throw his medal in the concrete...disrespectful, they called it. The man in the wheel chair said, "I'd heard you were building a Memorial for the Vietnam Vets and I knew it needed some Heart" and that was the reason he'd thrown his medal in the concrete. It's a documented True Story that there is a purple heart buried in the concrete of the Vietnam Memorial.
It was very moving to see and to hear the stories of the Veterans that were there....humbling, most definitely. Very emotional, very beautiful...it was overcast and cold though...and lots of people so....Enjoy.
1. They have a little "museum" semi-like trailer that houses things from the 60's and these were in there-
2. There were lots of flowers against the wall, so alot of my shots have flowers...I know they were a bit blown out...espcially the white! Sorry in advance!
3.
4. I do like my flowers....
5. Some of the kids from local schools wrote letters to the soldiers and they were put in ziploc baggies and lined the front of the Wall...Many of them were very moving...
6. This family had relatives that had died in Vietnam and they were taking pictures and laying flowers in front of the Wall...
7. I can't remember exactly what the 72 boots were for....I'm a little irritated that I can't remember!
8.
9. Again, part of the 72 boots, the Veteran told us that if a fellow soldier was injured, other soldiers would put his gun in the ground-if there was a helmet on top of the gun it signaled to medics that there was a soldier injured and needs help. If there was no helmet on top of the gun, it meant that the soldier was injured and unable to be saved.
10.
11. There were other boots on a table that were donated by service men & women who are currently serving in Iraq...these boots represent soldiers in IL that are MIA or POW
12.
13.
14.
15. God Bless!
