By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-839144.mp3
Dallas, TX – This Memorial Day, the American Veterans Traveling Tribute is at Fair Park in Dallas. KERA's BJ Austin says the centerpiece of the free display is a replica of THE WALL in Washington DC; the memorial to those who died in the Vietnam War.
Music played at Dallas City Hall as the Wall and the other exhibits were given a Police motorcycle escort to Fair Park. Don Allen, CEO of the American Veterans Traveling Tribute, says it regularly draws between 20 and 100 thousand people at its stops. It features the Wall replica, as well as names and tributes of those who've fallen in more recent and more distant wars. Allen says the tribute aims to be educational and thought-provoking. As a Vietnam Vet, he walks along the wall with the names of many of his buddies.
Allen: It's an 80% replica of the Wall in DC, 100 % of the names: 58,253 names. What we believe is this is not a sad place. This is a place of celebration. First of all, we believe if your name is written and is on display, you can never be forgotten. Secondly, we believe we stand here today because of all the men and women represented around us. Thirdly, we believe that the only appropriate way to pay tribute to those who came before us and gave us what we have is to celebrate the freedom they gave us.
Allen: So, us being here is a celebration of that. When my brothers and sisters, Vietnam Veterans, when they come and they look, it's a name most of the time there's a smile. You know, I remember the good things that are associated with that particular name. As you come forward from that, these nine panels here all have gold dog tags on them. And each of those gold dog tags has the name of a casualty since Vietnam recorded on it. Starting to my left here, Desert Storm, Panama, Granada .. all those operations. And the next one begins Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terror. So each one of those that you see has the name, date, location, branch of service and rank of the person that was a casualty in the global war on terror. There are about five thousand of those total.
Austin: A name is a powerful thing, isn't it?
Allen: It's a final signature. Think about it.