Traveling wall honors soldiers, offers connection Courier, The (Findlay, OH) - Saturday, July 16, 2011 Author: LOU WILIN ; STAFF WRITER OTTAWA - More than 58,000 brothers, sons and fathers were killed while serving in the Vietnam War. An opportunity to honor and, many say, even connect with them is coming next week in the form of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall. Free and open to everyone, it will be displayed Friday through Sunday, July 24, at the Putnam County Fairgrounds in Ottawa. At 288 feet wide, and six feet high at its apex, the two-sided black wall envelops viewers and pulls them into the destinies of the young men whose names are inscribed. Many Americans protested the war and, for years, the troops' sacrifices did not get the same homage paid to those of previous wars. "For a long time, there was no recognition. I'm glad they came up with (the wall)," said Steve Tadena of Pandora, whose father was killed in Vietnam in 1967. Tadena was 7 years old when Esteban Tadena died. It was dramatic when, four years ago, he visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and touched the etching of his father's name. "A calming, a peace came over me," he said. The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is three-fifths the size of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. A trailer carrying the wall will make a stopover in Findlay on Thursday en route to Ottawa. The Wall Escort Parade to Ottawa, replete with thousands of bikers from all over Ohio, will depart the Hancock County Fairgrounds at 6 p.m. Thursday. Bikers will start assembling at the fairgrounds Thursday afternoon. Among them will be Lafayette resident John Schmiedebusch, who served in South Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. The wall "represents the 58,000 guys that didn't come back.... It's kind of sacred," Schmiedebusch said. "I have a couple of friends on the wall." Diane Dickman Bishop, of Ottawa, has a brother on the wall, who knew before he left for Vietnam that he would not return. He told a cousin so. "We know we're only statistics," he said. David M. Dickman, 21, was killed in 1968 by a sniper shot to his neck while he carried a wounded comrade to a medical helicopter. "The wall is so symbolic... The symbolism of what young persons are willing or asked to give for their country," Bishop said. For those who are not veterans and without a family member who served, the wall offers a connection to those who served, said psychologist Simon Casey, chief executive officer of Emotional Mastery International, San Clemente, Calif. It also offers a teachable moment for kids, who tend to have difficulty understanding history, Casey said. "They should know and understand what it meant," he said. "It's important for families to bring in kids. Kids can't relate... unless their parents model it." So here's permission for parents: Feel free to get on your soapbox and give a history lesson, Casey said. For veterans, the wall is huge. "There is a healing property," Casey said. Visiting the wall can reduce veterans' fear, anger, grief and overwhelming anguish related to post-traumatic stress disorder. It can foster peace and acceptance, Casey said. It connects veterans to their former selves, the innocent ones they were before being subjected to concussions of violence, seeing friends killed and maimed. To cope with the trauma, many had to become emotionally detached, even zombie-like, Casey said. That same defense mechanism can imprison part of their psyche in Vietnam even years later when they are civilians at home, Casey said. "I see this all the time. Some of them are living the whole thing over and over," Casey said. Talking to someone can help heal grief for most of us. Many Vietnam veterans, however, have difficulty finding someone with whom to share "unthinkable" experiences and grief. Afraid of being judged and feeling humiliated, they don't talk about it, Casey said. "They're kind of trapped in their own flesh, blood and skin," he said. But the memorial wall enables veterans to move beyond their emotional walls. "It's a wonderful thing for them to go back and experience it," Casey said. Many touch the letters of their friends' names. "It's a sense of reconnecting," he said. "Even though it's a carving, for them it's a very different thing." They reconnect with what they lost of themselves and their friends. They can gain a sense of what they shared with their comrades in arms, Casey said. A further injustice of the Vietnam War was the indifference or hostility many veterans faced when they came home from the unpopular war. Anyone can thank a veteran any time for serving. But the wall gives citizens a special chance. "It helps the younger generation and the older generation rethink their involvement in the war, rethink their attitude toward it, rethink their welcoming home of the soldiers," Bishop said. Online: http://www.travelingwall.us Wilin: 419-427-8413, louwilin@thecourier.com Caption: Provided to The Courier VISITORS CHECK NAMES on the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, which will be set up in Ottawa for three days next week. As the wall is taken to Ottawa on Thursday, it will pass through Findlay, and thousands of motorcylists are expected to provide an escort. Edition: Final Section: A - News Page: 01 Record Number: CSS5F4C Copyright 2011 Courier, The (Findlay, OH)