Scores of people flocked to Grimes Park in DeSoto on a rainy Saturday to see a near full-size traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial.
"This is an 80 percent replica of the original wall. It's completely up to date up to 2008 as far as the names on the board," said Ray Razo, who worked to bring the American Veterans Traveling Tribute to DeSoto.
"It's such a waste," Aurelia Molina said as she looked at the names of the more than 58,000 young soldiers who were killed or remain missing in Vietnam.
"The last letter we got from him he said, 'I'm old enough to vote,'" Molina said as she pointed to the name of her brother, Noe Tamez.
He had just turned 21 when he was killed in Vietnam in 1969. He never got the chance to vote.
"This is very, very sad to me," Molina said. "But I'm glad I'm here."
"Here's Dick Reardon. Now they have him as missing, but they recently found some bones thanks to DNA," said Dorothy Schaferknocker as she pointed at her son's name on the wall.
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Forty years ago this month, her son was killed when the chopper that he served as a door-gunner on was shot down.
"It's sad, it's beautiful, but it's healing, and that's what it's all about," Schaferknocker said of the wall.
"Morris C. Miles Jr.," Vietnam veteran Dan Miles said as he pointed to his brother's name on the wall. "He was blown up on a ship in 1970."
A display filled with gold dog tags is set up to remember the soldiers lost in the Iraq campaigns, along with a gold replica statue of the three soldiers that oversee the wall in Washington, D.C.
Veteran John Powell sees it as a place to remember and to forget.
"Anyone that's a veteran, that served during Vietnam, they have some bad feelings, and this is where they need to come to put their bad feeling away," Powell said.
The wall will be on display at Grimes Park through Sunday.
It's free to the public, and there will be a special Sunday church service and a closing event scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
