Fog rolled in over the oceanside of Santa Barbara’s Chase Palm Park early Wednesday as members of the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America and volunteers worked to build the base of The Moving Wall, on display through Monday.
Peter Bie, co-chairman of The Moving Wall committee, stood off to the side to greet people and to answer questions, smiling at the work being carried out in front of him.
John Devitt, creator of The Moving Wall, had visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and was inspired by it, and thus, The Moving Wall was constructed.
The replica is 235 feet long and holds the names of the more than 58,000 American men and women who died in the Vietnam War.
Aside from its height — the replica is 7.5 feet tall and the memorial in Washington, D.C., is 10.5 feet tall — the replica is a mirrored image of the original.
“You can even see your reflection, just like you can (in the original),” Bie said.
Beginning in 1985, The Moving Wall has traveled all over the world, including all 50 states and Puerto Rico. This marks its fifth appearance in Santa Barbara.
Members of the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter are expecting a lot of visitors.
“This year we’ve had a lot of publicity,” said Don Matter, co-chairman of The Moving Wall committee and longtime chapter volunteer and member.
The Moving Wall was put up Thursday morning after being delivered from its last location — Tallahassee, Fla. It is available for viewing 24 hours a day, Bie said. Lights will be turned on at night, and the wall will stay up until noon Monday.
In addition to the replica, a tent has been constructed to serve as a welcome center that will contain books and computers with information about each name on the wall. Volunteers will also provide paper that visitors can use to rub names onto, Matter said.
For Matter, he said he had never seen the memorial before it came to Santa Barbara in 1985. The experience was “probably the most moving experience I’ve ever had next to getting married and watching my children be born,” he said.
Matter has since become an active volunteer for The Moving Wall and has visited the original wall. He said he sees the experience as a way for veterans to “take care of their demons of the war.”
Bie agreed, saying the wall is “all about the healing process.”
No matter the experience a soldier had in war, he said, they all left a piece of themselves in Vietnam that they can’t get back.
“They just want some logic behind the war,” he said, adding that although some questions are unanswerable, the wall provides a place to ask and reflect.
— Noozhawk intern Alexa Shapiro can be reached at ashapiro@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.