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A somber welcome for a memorial to lives lost
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer There had been thunder out on the gulf Tuesday morning, but this rumble was different. It started blocks away and kept coming, getting louder and louder the closer it got. The teeth-rattling vibration was made by more than 150 motorcycles as they trailed two by two behind a semitrailer truck holding a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The procession stretched for nearly a mile as it traveled down Pasco highways. Nearly all Vietnam veterans themselves, and nearly all on Harley-Davidsons, the motorcyclists were there to escort the Wall to North Meadowlawn Cemetery, where it will go on display Friday. Several veterans who followed the Wall from State Road 52 and Interstate 75 into New Port Richey said it was their honor to escort it into Pasco. For many, the Wall is a very emotional sight. Dale Hayward, a Cleveland native visiting his brother Randy in St. Petersburg, said he wouldn't have come out for the ride without his brother because it would have been too hard to do it alone. He said it felt good to be in the company of other veterans. "It's hard," said Hayward, who served in Vietnam during his eight years in the Army. "If you've been there and experienced it and you know some of the names of the Wall, it's difficult." The 240-foot-long and 8-foot-tall replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will open to the public Friday. Volunteer workers from local veterans groups and a detachment of Navy Seabees from St. Petersburg started setting up the Wall shortly after it arrived in New Port Richey. Area schoolchildren will get a preview Thursday.
As the semi carrying the Wall pulled into the cemetery, high school Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps students, dressed in uniform, stood at attention and saluted. Students from Gulf and River Ridge high schools were helping set up Tuesday. Students from other high schools will volunteer later this week. Cmdr. Mike Weaver, the naval science instructor at J.W. Mitchell High School, said he'd been talking to his students about the Wall and the Vietnam War, building up to the event. Still, he said, the students didn't know what kind of emotional experience they will probably have in the presence of veterans and the memorial. "The kids that went over there to fight aren't much older than (the students) are," Weaver said. "The kids only know about only what we've talked about in class. "I think they'll be moved by it." Frank DeBilio of Port Richey, who served in the infantry from 1967 to 1969 in Vietnam, said he rode Tuesday to "honor the memory of fallen brothers in war." To be near the Wall was a humbling experience, DeBilio said. "Thirty-some odd years later, the pain is still there," he said. "To see that many names in one location shows you how freedom is something you have to fight for. "Most Americans take it for granted." -- Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.
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