- Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 October 2018 19:37
By Alice Harris
The Vietnam War 'Wall That Heals' and its Mobile Education Center stood in Jimmy Long Field at Renziehausen Park in McKeesport, August 9-12, 2018. At 5:00 pm on August 8, more than 200 motorcycle riders, police, and emergency vehicles met and escorted the Wall to its place with many of the community volunteering to erect it.
The ‘Wall That Heals’ was located at Renziehausen Park in McKeesport, PA |
Due largely to the efforts of Walt Yager, a long time local advocate for Vietnam veterans, McKeesport was one of 38 communities selected from 109 applicants for the Wall to visit this year. Approximately 120 volunteers from a community are needed to run the traveling wall. The host fee to bring the Wall to a community is about $8,000.
Funded by the Vietnam Memorial Fund, the wall is a three-fourths replica of the actual Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. The wall lists 58,318 names of those who died, beginning with the first death in Vietnam in 1959. From Western Pennsylvania 882 residents were killed in Vietnam, 420 from Allegheny County, and 24 from McKeesport alone. Admission to visit the Wall was free and open around the clock. Photographs and pencil rubbings were permitted, as well.
To learn more about the traveling wall, please visit http://www.travelingwall.us/