NAHANT — The fate of the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, initially slated to visit Nahant from July 30 through August 2, is facing an uncertain future in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hosted by Nahant’s American Legion Post 215 as a celebration of its 100th anniversary, the event, which would have brought a touring replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. to the North Shore, has been indefinitely postponed until after strict state-mandated social distancing measures have been lifted.
Although he understood the reasoning behind the postponement, Frank Guidara, an American Legion member and Vietnam veteran who helped lead the effort in bringing the monument to Nahant, said he was disappointed by the unexpected turn of events.
“I really didn’t want to lose the date because you’re fighting against towns and cities all over America,” he said. “To be picked as one of the ones the wall would go to — and getting the dates we wanted — we were pretty excited.”
Operated by the Veterans Memorial Fund, the wall — known as “The Wall that Heals” — allows visitors to do rubbings of individual service members’ names, which are listed by day of casualty on the monument’s avonite surface.
It also doubles as a mobile education center that includes photos of service members and a display of items representative of those left at the larger version of the wall in Washington in remembrance of servicemen lost.
“It’s called the ‘Wall that Heals,’ and that’s a good name, but it doesn’t really describe what it is. We’ve been calling it the ‘Memorial Wall,’ said American Legion member Toby Quirk. “It evokes the same kind of somber and patriotic emotions that the wall in Washington D.C. evokes. It makes it very accessible and … we expect to have people come from great distances to this event, not just Vietnam veterans and their families, but also children, grandchildren, friends of veterans. A big element of this is the education center.”
Guidara added: “If you’ve been to the other war memorials (in D.C.), the Korean War — World War I, World War II, this one has a different sense to it. It’s about the young men, the young men who died.
“My company that I served with in Vietnam, we get together every five years and go to Washington D.C. to march along the wall and pay respects to those we lost. It means a lot.”
Towns and cities across the country must enter for the chance to have the memorial visit their communities, and competition can be tough. Before Nahant, the memorial was scheduled to make stops in Bedford, Pa.; Clinton Township, Mich.; Wheaton, Ill.; and Tama, Iowa. Several of those communities have been forced to cancel or postpone their dates as well.
Quirk said that the long list of cancellations will complicate matters when it comes to picking a new date for the wall’s arrival in the Boston area.
“We have some assurances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that we will be rescheduled for next year, but it’s not 100 percent,” he said. “We hope to be on that schedule.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
