Lynners join forces, erect ‘Wall’ exhibit

LYNN – Yariely Portorreal only had to hear the words “sergeant major” to suspend her end-of-summer activities and spend Wednesday helping set up The Wall That Heals on Fraser Field.Portorreal and fellow English High School Marine Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets use his Marine Corps rank when addressing or referring to Kenneth Oswald, the heart and soul of the JROTC program.At Oswald’s request, 15 cadets rendezvoused at Fraser early Wednesday morning and helped assemble the wall’s 24 metal panels into a 250 foot-long angled wall framed at each end by small islands of plants. Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., The Wall That Heals is inscribed with 58,249 names of those killed or missing in action in Vietnam.It took Portorreal, Michael Burgess and fellow cadets two hours to set up the wall, carefully aligning each panel before securing panel footings into the field with metal stakes.”Getting the angle right was the toughest part,” said Burgess.Jack Sullivan of EZ Landscaping arranged the plant displays with the help of Tim Lawrence, a Vietnam-era veteran whose older brother, James Grimes, served in Vietnam.”This really means a lot. You remember the tough times they were going through,” Lawrence said.The wall opens for viewing at 8 a.m. today and the 6 p.m. opening ceremony will include speeches, a memorial wreath laying and a 21-gun howitzer salute. The wall will be open for around-the-clock visits through midnight Sunday.The field’s Locust Street and Western Avenue entrances will be open during the day and Locust Street will be the evening and nighttime entrance.Wall visitors can also view a traveling Vietnam War and Memorial Wall museum at Fraser Field. A late addition to the Fraser memorial is the remembrance book honoring U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.Visitors can use a names directory available in the information tent next to the wall to find a specific name on the wall or ask a volunteer to look up the name’s location in a computer. Names are listed in the directory in alphabetical order with each entry listed next to the panel and line number where the name can be found.Wall organizers ask visitors to not smoke or use cellular telephones near the wall out of respect for other visitors and the names memorialized on the wall.Click here for more coverage of the Traveling Wall: www.itemlive.com/veteransClick Here to see the Traveling Wall Special Section: https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/special/wall2009