John “Doc” Henyan of Illinois, a medic in the U.S. Army A Company 2nd Platoon, is still upholding his end of the bargain. Doc was one of thousands who attended a special ceremony at Washington City Memorial Park, Veteran's Park, to honor fallen soldiers, firemen and police officers that never had a proper funeral service.
Bruce Hokinson of Hurricane, a good friend of Doc’s for 17 years, attended the ceremony with his friend.
“He has a Combat Medic badge,” Hokinson said, pointing to Doc’s ribbons and badges. “This is a Bronze Star with a ‘V’ device for valor. He has three of them. And this is a Purple Heart. He has three of them, too.”
“And this identifies him as a Combat Vet in the field,” he added pointing to another ribbon. “In the thick of it, he was doing his job, at a time it was needed to be done. Without this type of man in the field, a lot of boys would not have come home.”
The men attended last night’s ceremony before the Traveling Wall, also known as the Healing Wall, left Washington City.
The Traveling Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C., was brought to St. George last week after traveling all over the U.S. It has been to Ireland three times and will go to Auburn, Wash., next. It remains in each city for less than seven days, usually three to four, and takes one year advanced notice to request the wall in each city it stops at.
Before the Wall moves onto Washington., a special flag-folding ceremony was held last night and presented to Washington City Mayor Ken Neilson. A 21-gun salute and the playing of Taps was part of the ceremony that honored the fallen brave.
“This is for the fallen heroes that never got a funeral,” said Dan Greathouse, President of the Vietnam Veteran’s Association Chapter 961 of Southern Utah.
Dan Scruggs started and designed the original Wall in D.C., and then designed the traveling wall because he realized many people wouldn’t be able to get to D.C. to see the original. It is sized to half the scale of the original wall, but all the names remain on the replica.
"58,287 names of men and women who gave their lives so that we can be free today, even though it was a war that nobody wanted, but we paid our dues,” Greathouse said. “We're soldiers and we went where we were told. We did not lose the Vietnam War."
Photo by Chris Mosteller
Photo by Chris Mosteller
Photo by Chanda Gunter
Photo by Chanda Gunter
Photo by Chanda Gunter
