Healing, tears at Viet vets memorial wall

PROVO — A soft misty rain set a somber tone for the opening ceremonies of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall as visitors traced names on the wall with their fingers and shed tears for lost loved ones.

Veterans from several wars and every branch of the armed services were welcomed Thursday morning by Provo Mayor Lewis K. Billings at opening ceremonies of the moving wall's visit to Provo. It will be in Provo through Monday morning.

Guest speaker George Wahlen, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and World War II veteran, spoke to the crowd of his experiences at Iwo Jima, detailed in the book "The Quiet Hero."

Punctuating his speech with "I'll always remember," Wahlen said his military service began at age 17 at Hill Field, overseeing a group of five men.

He spent time in the Navy and served in the Marine Corps as a medical corpsman at Iwo Jima.

"It was my responsibility to take care of casualties," Wahlen said. "It's the first time I prayed in my whole life. It was a scary experience."

Wahlen recounted enduring machine gun fire and grenades being lobbed at him. He continued to crawl into holes to bandage soldiers and give morphine to the wounded.

"I kept telling myself, 'I'm a corpsman — I can't quit,"' Wahlen said. He was injured several times on Iwo Jima and, upon receiving his medal, he put it away, not even telling his wife. She found out about it when he was invited to Washington, D.C., where he said "a farm boy from Utah shook hands with President Truman."

Wahlen went on to serve 20 years in the Army, then worked for the Veterans Administration for 14 more years. The VA hospital in Salt Lake City now bears his name.

Thursday morning's ceremonies included the national anthem played by the Timpview High School band and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The band also played the songs of each branch of the armed services as veterans stood and were recognized with applause from an appreciative crowd.

The gratitude of those in attendance was vastly different from the reception some veterans received when returning from the Vietnam War.

"A young blond woman came up to me in the San Francisco airport when I returned from duty (in Vietnam)," said Gerald Hubbard, sponsor and organizer for the wall coming to Provo. "She spat on me and called me a baby-killer."

Confused, Hubbard didn't know what to think about the young woman's words and actions.