On the first day after the panels were set up and visitors began coming, I met a 9-year-old boy named Ethan and his dad there. After giving them a briefing about the design and the organization of the names and how names are located, I told them I'd be happy to answer any questions they might have. The dad turned to Ethan and asked what questions he had--and Ethan had plenty! And he came back multiple times every day to ask more questions the entire time we were there. He told me he was writing a report about the Wall for school.
He had seen the display of military weapons and equipment that someone not connected with the AV Wall had independently gotten a permit to display just outside the AV Wall display site, and Ethan seemed pretty jazzed about that, so he first asked some questions about weapons. He also was interested in military medals, and wanted to know about my ribbons.
Normally I don't talk to kids about weapons or about medals and ribbons. At most, I'll point out the Vietnam Service Medal that indicates the person wearing it served in Vietnam, and the Purple Heart Ribbon because its color indicates what it is. But because Ethan was so interested in those things I decided to be patient with him and answer all of his questions--and also use that opportunity to point out some not-so-glorious things about the military and serving in war, at least thngs that were age-appropriate for him.
I told him about my being wounded by AK fire to my jaw and shoulder and spending 18 months in the hospital, and about having to go back in years later to have my jaw rebuilt two more times.
One of the other stories I told him was about how I spent my 21st birthday in Vietnam. We had to go to secure an artillery battery that was flying out by chopper to a hill in the A shau Valley to get range on their target. It was a fire-and-extract mission because once the guns fired on North Vietnamese Army (NVA) positions all the NVA in their valley stronghold would know exactly where we were.
We wanted to get out quickly, but fog had come in and we couldn't be extracted. We were socked in there for 3 days, expecting each long night that we would be attacked and overrun and we would all be killed.
Somehow we made it to the 3rd day without being hit, and it was my birthday. I had some Swiss Miss cocoa that my mom had sent me from home, but we'd all run out of water even though we carried 4 canteens per man.
The top of our hill was riddled with bomb craters filled with red, muddy water. Floating in the water were charred splinters of trees that had been there when it was bombed. For 3 days, all of our guys had been urinating in those bomb craters.
So I celebrated my birthday with a few others by taking water from a bomb crater , making some cocoa, and straining out the charred tree splinters with my teeth. It was a night when I expected to die, but somehow that didn't happen and when the fog lifted we were extracted.
That must have made at least some impression because on his next visit Ethan's first question was "What year did you turn 21?"
One night Ethan came with his mom. She said she'd heard so much about me that she had to come out to met me. But I think she was secretly grateful for anyone who tried to throw a little cold water on Ethan's fascination with guts and glory. They are a wonderful family and very patriotic, but as a mother she had to be concerned about the prospect of losing her precious son to some future unnecessary war.
Ethan kept coming back, mostly with his dad and sometimes with his little brother in tow. He brought me an 8x10 enlargement of a photo his dad had taken of the two of us, and he gave me a bracelet he'd made for me in his church rec program. He also gave me a copy of the report he'd written for school. It was hand-printed in pencil on 4 pages.
Ethan's report briefly talked about the creation of the Wall in D.C, and the creation of the AV Wall. He talked about how he stood, waving two American flags, on a main street with his family when the AV Wall convoy came in to set up, and how he visited the Wall every day it was there. About how he left a message at the panel where the name of a distant relative is engraved. He reportd a few things he learned about weapons, like a flamethrower shoots fire for 45 feet.
He said he interviewed veterans at the Wall and learned things from them. Then, just before his closing paragraph, he said he also made a new friend--and he named me. He listed all of my ribbons, said I was wounded in the jaw and shoulder, and wrote that he was glad I survived.
But it was his opening and closing paragraphs that really blew us away. He said that this often is called "the wall that heals" but he thinks it also should be called "the wall that teaches." And that's what he titled his report: The Wall That Teaches.
I shared Ethan's report with all of the members of the AV Wall Team, and when our president spoke at the closing ceremony (with Ethan and his entire family present), he finished with the story of a young man, 9 years old, who came to the Wall every day and wrote an excellent report about his experience. He announced that we expected Ethan's teacher to give him a top grade, but the AV Wall Team had already given him an A+. And he announced that in recognition of Ethan's thorough research and outstanding report, we wanted to make Ethan an Honorary Member of the AV Wall Team.
We called Ethan up to the podium and I presented him with an AV Wall shirt. After the ceremony I spent some time with Ethan's family, who were thrilled by that unexected recognition. They also said that they definitely will come up to Palmdale when we display the AV Wall there over Veterans Day in November.
And later we had people who were in the audience coming up to us to tell us how special that moment in the ceremony was. Everybody loved Ethan's story and his being recognized for all his research work and his report.
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The Salvation Army crew soon re-opened their canteen truck, and some additional food was brought over from the other event that day for the volunteers and the AV Wall Team, so we did have a chance to eat.