This year, the city of Monroe is hosting the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall on Nov. 5-7 at the Chennault Aviation Military Museum.
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall was designed to honor all of the fallen soldiers and to remember them for their service and sacrifice.
The wall is a smaller replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. It stands 6- feet tall, stretching almost 300 feet and holds the names of all 58,195 fallen soilders from the Vietnam War.
The museum will also be showing a documentary, full of personal accounts from Vietnam Veterans.
The wall is creating buzz among community members, especially a man who knows all too well about war, comrades and loss.
Every Thursday night, Enoch’s Irish Pub hosts 84- year-old World War II veteran Joe Crain.
Even though Crain did not serve and fight in Vietnam, he is outspoken about what it means to him to have the city of Monroe recognizing the sacrifices made by the more than 58,000 soldiers.
“It means a lot to me, ‘cause it shows me that people do appreciate not so much what we did for them, but are appreciative of what they have because of what we [soldiers] preserved for them,” Crain said.
“It’s all because we did what we did, and had no problem doing it,” he continued.
Among the chaos and clutter of Enoch’s walls can be found an aged sepia service picture of Crain at the age of 16.
“You see, if our government had not had a plan for a good armed forces and we the citizens, the young citizens of this country were not willing to back it up and participate, then we would not have what we’ve got today. You would not have the freedom we’ve got,” Crain said.
After convincing his mother to lie about his age, Crain enlisted at 15 and went on to drive Higgins boats, which held 36 soldiers at a time, to the shores of Normandy.
“When we landed in Normandy, they were shooting them down as fast as they were dumping them on the beach” Crain said.
“Out of the 36 men that I carried to the beach in my boat there was 18 of them never got out of the boat,” he continued.
By the time he was 19, Crain had been through the Sicily Invasion, Normandy Invasion, Southern France Invasion and was currently stationed in Okinawa.
Crain makes it a point to visit schools and surrounding areas in order to stress the same principle that the Vietnam Memorial does. He feels like it’s important for every American citizen to remember the fallen soldiers and be thankful for the freedom we have.
Jaquita Smith, a sophomore marketing major from Shreveport, is excited about seeing the wall.
“It sounds interesting. I willhave to check out,” Smith said.
Ron Griggs, project manager for the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, is confident in the outcome of this event.
“There’s no doubt in my mind there will be over 10,000 visitors,” he said.
The opening ceremonies for the memorial will take place Friday, Nov. 5, starting at 9 a.m. at the museum.
The opening ceremony will feature the ULM color guard and speaker George Finck.
The closing ceremonies will take place Sunday, Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.
