Traveling Vietnam Wall Is In Chicago Area Through Tonight

Bob Roberts, WBBM Newsradio 780 Reporting

CHICAGO -- After a year of preparation, the traveling Vietnam Wall is in the Chicago area through tonight.
   Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars marched down Kedzie Avenue behind a flag-draped coffin on a caisson to the Everest section of Oak Hill Cemetery, at 119th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Merrionette Park, before a brief ceremony dedicating the weekend exhibit to those who gave their lives in the Vietnam conflict.
   Dozens of American flags encircled the monument, a three-quarters scale replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
   Also prominently displayed are the flags of each branch of the U.S. military, and the black POW-MIA flag.
   Oak Hill General Manager Diane Nowak worked for more than a year to bring the traveling memorial to the cemetery, and said she found it "appropriate" for it to be on display beneath the nation's flag.
   "The most important thing is that everyone use this time this weekend to remember," she said. "Remember that those aren't just names on a wall but lives that were lived and dreams that were cut short."
   Each of the thousands of names on the wall are being read, in a ceremony which concludes tonight.
   Nowak said that many friends and loved ones of servicemen who died in Vietnam have asked to read specific portions of the list.
   Others have contributed photos and vintage film footage of those who died.

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