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W E D N E S D A Y, M A R C H 1 2 , 2 0 1 4
Six days to honor and heal The Wall That Heals, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, comes to Santa Fe
BY ROBERT NOTT
S
u
ome years back, Arturo Canales flew to Washington, D.C., to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. But before he could even approach the rolling blackgranite structure or rub his fingers across the carved names of the more than 58,000 Americans who perished in the war, Canales, a veteran of the conflict himself, was overcome with emotion. He hailed a cab to the airport and flew right back to Santa Fe. Ron Barela, another Vietnam veteran from Santa Fe, understands how Canales feels. The first time Barela went to the Wall he was so riddled with feelings of angst and sadness that he had to stop and sit down.
THE NEW MEXICAN
“I’ve since talked to vets who don’t want to see it. They’re afraid of what it will bring back,” he said. Such is the power of the Wall, a sobering tribute to the American servicemen and servicewomen who lost their lives in the conflict and the thousands who came home and were often forgotten. But many New Mexicans who served or lost loved ones in the war have never visited the memorial. They’ll have a chance of sorts next week when The Wall That Heals — a half-size replica of the actual Wall — arrives in Santa Fe for six days. It will be located at Fort Marcy Ballpark. Please see HEAL, Page 3
The women’s memorial
Honoring vets in Angel Fire
New Mexico’s fallen
Transporting the Wall
The struggle to recognize women’s experiences in Vietnam culminates in Santa Fe artist’s statue.
Now a state park, a memorial chapel near the village was the first major memorial to Vietnam veterans.
Photographs of the 398 New Mexicans killed in action during the Vietnam War.
Husband-and-wife team drives The Wall That Heals across the country, sharing emotion along the way.
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THE NEW MEXICAN
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Your hometown
First Responders, Veterans, and active members of the Military Please Join us Saturday, March 22nd between 11-2 at 2721 Cerrillos Rd Santa Fe For a free BBQ luncheon. We appreciate all you do!
PROUDLY SUPPORTS the members of all Military Branches and their families.
2721 Cerrillos Rd • Santa Fe, NM • 505-473-2886
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
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The Wall That Heals u The Wall That Heals is scheduled to arrive at Fort Marcy Ballpark on Bishops Lodge Road in Santa Fe, accompanied by a motorcycle escort, sometime Tuesday, March 18. u The monument’s official welcoming ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 20. u Organizers will conduct a candlelight vigil and reading of the names of the 398 New Mexican veterans who are on the wall at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 22. u A model of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial will be on display with The Wall That Heals. u The wall will be taken down on the evening of March 23 and will leave town March 24. For more on The Wall That Heals and a schedule of events, go to www.santafe newmexican. com/news/ veterans
A special section of The Santa Fe New Mexican Robin Martin Owner
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Ray Rivera Editor
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A veteran visits The Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The Wall has 58,286 names, including about 1,200 veterans who are still considered ‘missing’ and eight women. COURTESY PHOTOS
Six days to honor and heal Continued from Page 1 “I’m pretty sure I will be emotional,” said Raymond Nava, whose brother, Francis Xavier Nava, was the first Santa Fe casualty of the Vietnam War in September 1966. Raymond Nava, who has never visited the memorial in Washington, plans to take his grandsons with him to see the traveling wall when it arrives in Santa Fe. “I’ve taken my grandsons to the school named after him,” he said, referring to Nava Elementary School. “I try to explain to them who he was and what he did, so I think they’re ready to go.” Having his brother’s name on the Wall, he said, is “an honor, quite an honor.” The Wall That Heals, which is about 250 feet long and features 24 aluminum panels of names, was unveiled on Veterans Day 1996, 14 years after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall opened in Washington. The Wall That Heals has toured, via truck, more than 350 communities in America. As on the actual Wall, the names are listed in chronological order by the date of casualty. Bob and Brenda Dobek, who drive and operate The Wall That Heals, will be on hand from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day to help visitors look up the location of names on the wall. In addition, a book pinpointing locales of the names will be on-site the entire time. Volunteers will man the site 24 hours a day as well. Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam Army veteran, came up with the idea for the Vietnam memorial and put up $2,800 of his own money to get the project going in the late 1970s after seeing the 1978 film The Deer
Hunter, which deals with the trauma Vietnam vets experience during and after the conflict. “The whole story of the Wall is PTSD,” Scruggs said by phone from Washington last week. “After I saw that movie, I said, ‘I’m going to build this.’ ” He founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which eventually raised close to $9 million in private, corporate, foundation and union funds to complete the project, which was dedicated over Veterans Day weekend in 1982. Ohio-born Maya Ying Lin, then a Yale University student, created the design for the black granite monument, which features two walls, each measuring about 246 feet, with 70 panels of names. The Wall has 58,286 names, including about 1,200 veterans who are still considered “missing” and eight women. The foundation has added groups of names as more information on dead or missing vets becomes available over the years, and it plans to add another 14 names to the Wall in May 2014. Scruggs said The Wall That Heals often has more power than the actual Wall because “this is where these people lived, in little towns like Santa Fe, before they got drafted or volunteered to serve their country. It’s like they’re coming home.” Unlike many moments that inspire from a distance, the Wall requires a close connection, Scruggs said: “You can see your own reflection in the panels; they are like mirror-like surfaces. You touch it and it’s an interaction, in a good way, between people who are living and people who are no longer living.” Brenda Dobek, who with her husband has been driving The Wall That Heals around the country
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Published March 12, 2014 Design: Brian Barker Copy editing: Brian Barker, Kristina Dunham Photo toning: Clyde Mueller, Brian Barker Web editor: Natalie Guillen All New Mexico veterans photos courtesy Arturo Canales, Vietnam Veterans of America, Northern New Mexico Chapter 996 On the cover: A shadow on the mirror-like surface of The Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. COURTESY PHOTO
Photos of some of those service members honored on The Wall That Heals, part of the exhibit that travels with the replica Wall.
for nearly five years, put it this way: “Most of the visitors who come to it have come to look up their cousin, their paperboy or the kid down the street who broke their window when he was playing baseball.” Scruggs said the majority of the visitors to the Wall in D.C. are civilians, including tourists and school groups. Nava Elementary School’s principal, Brenda Korting, said the school plans to arrange for buses to take its fifth- and sixth-grade students — as well as those students’ kindergarten-age “reading buddies” — on a field trip to The Wall That Heals on March 21. Barela noted that 17 names on the Wall are Santa Fe natives. “I went to school with some of those guys,” he said. Canales spearheaded a statewide drive to collect photos of all 398 New Mexicans who perished in the war, making New Mexico the first state in the nation to achieve the feat for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund project currently underway. He said binders of those photos will be available for viewing during the six days that The Wall That Heals is stationed in Santa Fe. He and Barela encourage local vets to visit The Wall That Heals. Canales eventually got to the Wall in Washington 15 years after his first attempt. While he said the experience was “heart-wrenching,” he takes a lot of pride in what the memorial represents. “Those are our fallen brothers,” he said. Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.
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THE NEW MEXICAN
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
In Angel Fire, a ‘symbol of the tragedy and futility of war’ BY ELLIOTT MARTIN
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From left, Amelia Jane Carson and Dotty Beatty, who were nurses during the Vietnam War, look at a model of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial sculpture on March 3. The sculpture was designed by Glenna Goodacre, and the model will be on display with The Wall That Heals. CLYDE MUELLER/THE NEW MEXICAN
W
hen Air Force nurse Dotty Beatty stepped off a transport plane in Cam Ranh Bay Air Field, Vietnam, in October 1969 for the first time — and only after incoming rocket fire temporarily diverted the plane to another site — it took her less than a minute to size up the chaos. “Oh my God, there’s no rules here,” she recalled thinking to herself. Former U.S. Army nurse Amelia Jane Carson, who arrived at her duty post at the 312th Evacuation Hospital about 320 miles north of Saigon in April 1969, said she first knew she was heading into a war zone by the appearance of her fellow air passengers — “young men who looked like babies clad in full-service military gear.” Both Santa Fe women worked around the clock for a year in an effort to save lives, including those of Vietnamese prisoners. They rarely ventured off base, and even a seemingly safe swim in the nearby China Sea was undercut by the presence of American machine-gunners looking out for them from pillboxes hidden in the beach dunes. Rocket attacks were common; they came to quickly discern the difference between one that was going to fly overhead and one that was about to land nearby. They still think about the soldiers they couldn’t help. “You wonder how many you held as they died,” Carson recalled. “The heart doesn’t remember the ones you saved. You remember the ones who died.” Beatty, upon completing her threeyear tour in the Air Force, became a dentist because it gave her more oneon-one connections to her patients — “and hopefully no one would die in my chair.” For the past 40-plus years, both women have sought solace in the stories of other veterans, in counseling services provided by vet centers and by the promise of healing that the Vietnam Women’s Memorial offers. Santa Fe sculptor Glenna Goodacre created the memorial — sometimes erroneously referred to as the Nurse’s Statue — in the early 1990s after former Army nurse Diane Carlson Evans led a charge to honor the roughly 265,000 women who served during the Vietnam War era. Evans felt the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., which features the inscribed names of more than 58,000 people who died during the conflict, went a long way toward acknowledging the sacrifice that military personnel made during the Vietnam conflict. Yet it wasn’t quite enough. Speaking by phone from her home in Helena, Mont., Evans said she found the Wall to be “perfect” as she sought
Honoring the women who served BY ROBERT NOTT
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Carson in 1969, when she worked at a hospital 320 miles from Saigon.
Beatty at 23 in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, in 1969. COURTESY PHOTO
out the name of nurse Sharon Ann Lane, who happened to be a friend of Carson’s. Lane died when rockets hit the hospital ward where she was tending to wounded prisoners of war. But after Frederick Hart’s statue of three servicemen on patrol was erected near the Wall a couple of years later, Evans felt that women were being overlooked. “Not only were they not talking about including a woman in it, they were not even talking about the women who served at all,” she said. “For me, there was something brewing inside me — if we are going to honor the men with a statue, wouldn’t it be perfect to have a statue for women?” She set out building a cadre of volunteers and supporters — including Carson, who was then serving in the Army at the Pentagon — and fought a decadelong battle against various federal groups and opponents to get the Vietnam Women’s Memorial sanctioned and set up. At one point, she got so fed up with all the opposition that when ABC newsman Sam Donaldson shoved a microphone in her face and asked, “What will it take to put this statue near the Wall?” Evans responded, “It’s going to take an act of Congress and an act of God.” “And it did,” she said last week. The sculpture was dedicated in 1993. Goodacre’s design features three women: one, obviously a nurse, tending to a wounded serviceman. The
other two are representatives of women who served during the conflict. One looks to the skies, perhaps seeking either heavenly help or an incoming evacuation helicopter. The other woman is on her knees, her pensive expression perhaps expressing the futility of battle. Via email, Goodacre said last week that the Vietnam Women’s Memorial is “so poignantly meaningful to so many lady vets and volunteers from the Vietnam era. It is their anchor. Without it, I think it would have taken decades more to recognize them and pull them together.” To Beatty, the women’s memorial completes the monument in D.C. “The women’s statue is about those who were there and lived. It acknowledges our experience,” she said. A miniature model of Goodacre’s Vietnam Women’s Memorial will be on display March 18-24 when The Wall That Heals — a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall — comes to Fort Marcy Ballpark in Santa Fe. The Wall does include the names of eight American women who died in service during the Vietnam War. Besides Lane, they are Pamela Dorothy Donovan, Annie Ruth Graham, Mary Therese Klinker, Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba, Elizabeth Ann Jones, Eleanor Grace Alexander and Hedwig Diane Orlowski.
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ietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, next to the village of Angel Fire, commemorates more than the love and hardship of two parents who lost their son in an ambush on May 22, 1968. The memorial is a place of remembrance, reunion and reflection. The letters, notes and poems scribbled in the memorial’s scrapbook are a testament to the grief and healing prevalent at the site. In May 1968, Dr. Victor Westphall and his wife, Jeanne, learned their son David, a Marine, was killed in an ambush near Con Thien, South Vietnam. They immediately decided to build a memorial to him and the 15 others who died that afternoon. Not long after, they chose to have the memorial honor all Vietnam veterans. “We decided to build an enduring symbol of the tragedy and futility of war,” Victor Westphall, who died in 2003, said of the memorial. The Westphalls devoted the rest of their lives to realize their dream. The memorial chapel was dedicated May 22, 1971, making it the first major memorial for Vietnam War veterans. According to the David Westphall Veterans Foundation website, it also helped inspire the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Building a memorial for their son didn’t come easy for the Westphalls. Walter Westphall, their other son, said that apart from dealing with financial difficulties, harsh winters and contractor issues, they had to overcome the negative attitude toward the war and the people who served in it. Eventually, Victor Westphall and the David Westphall Veterans Foundation turned over the memorial to the Disabled American Veterans, or DAV, which was able to fund and construct a visitor center in 1985. DAV returned ownership of the memorial back to the David Westphall Veterans Foundation in 1998. As a result, the foundation decided to approach the state. The memorial was established as a state park in 2005 under a few conditions. One was that the memorial is to remain free to visitors, making it the only state park without an entrance fee. Another was the result of an unforgettable experience Victor Westphall had. While building the chapel, he locked the doors at night. One morn-
u
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ing, upon reaching the job site, he found a note written on a scrap of plywood that said, “Why did you lock the doors when I needed to come in?” According to the foundation, the doors have never been locked since. While the visitor center has regular hours, the chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it available to whomever needs it. Chuck Howe, president of the David Westphall Veterans Foundation’s board of directors, called the memorial a place of healing. Howe, a Vietnam War veteran, has been involved with the foundation for nine years. The foundation is still following Victor Westphall’s philosophy, making the memorial a place for veterans of all wars, not just Vietnam. As Howe explained, veterans and families find comfort having a place to congregate and reflect. One note in the memorial’s scrapbook from Marine Sgt. Jim Benson to his lost comrades reads, “We did not bleed, suffer and die for nothing … we are those gentle heroes who answered the eternal call to pay for the freedom of all men everywhere with our blood.” As veterans age, particularly those who fought in Vietnam, Howe said the foundation wants to keep their experience relevant through education. For instance, Howe noted more maps and books are available at the center for purchase. They are a means to help people, especially children, understand where different events took place and what that experience might have been like. Howe also said the memorial is expanding hands-on exhibits. At the moment, it has on display objects from medals to Navy frogman gear. The memorial hosts events throughout the year, such as the Run For The Wall, the cross-country motorcycle rally, and Memorial Day weekend activities. This year, Joe Galloway, one of the authors of We Were Soldiers Once … and Young, will be the keynote speaker. A flag retirement ceremony is held during the summer. On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, memorial bricks are laid, and any veteran can participate. Currently, 2,300 memorial bricks have been laid, as well as an additional 40 for Medal of Honor recipients. For information about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, email info@vietnamveteransmemorial.org or call 575-377-6900.
The Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel near Angel Fire was dedicated May 22, 1971, making it the first major memorial for Vietnam War veterans. COURTESY MICHAEL TURRI
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
THE NEW MEXICAN
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New Mexico was the first state to gather photographs of all of those it lost in combat during the Vietnam War. They are:
Jerry Delbert Abeyta, Gallup
George Dayton Adams, Albuquerque
John K. Adams, Roswell
Michael Thomas Adams, Albuquerque
Woodrow Dennis Adler, Gallup
Carlos Cruz Aguirre, Silver City
Donald Ray Alexander, Socorro
George W. Alexander Jr., Las Vegas
Richard Lee Allen, Farmington
George Michael Anaya, Galisteo
Marion Bryan Andler, Albuquerque
Abelardo Araujo, Lake Arthur
Joseph Archuleta, Las Vegas
Antony William Arellano, Albuquerque
Frank Leroy Auten, Albuquerque
Gabriel Baca, Santa Cruz
Frank Charles Armijo, Albuquerque
John Ramage Barbour, Las Cruces
Ignacio Barela, Alamogordo
Luther Barney, Mexican Springs
George Benjamin Bell, Albuquerque
Benjamin John Benavidez, Montezuma
David Edward Bergfeldt, Las Cruces
Johnnie Antonio Jr., Crown Point
Johnny Arthur, Fruitland
Herbert Arviso, Farmington
Floyd Samuel Atole, Dulce
Rollin Randolph Austin, Estancia
Isidro Baca, Socorro
Johnny Lawrence Baca Jr., Taos
Michael O’Brien Baker, Albuquerque
Secundino Baldonado, Jarales
Isidro Sigfredo Bazan, Albuquerque
John Wesley Beckett, Albuquerque
Eddie Charles Begaye, Ramah
Edmond David Bilbrey, Albuquerque
Rodney Joe Black, Roswell
Norman Hubert Bloomfield, Ramah
Felix Dohaltahe Begaye, Little Water
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THE NEW MEXICAN Wednesday, March 12, 2014
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Monty Doyal Boyer, Roswell
Freddie Isidore Branch, Española
Kenneth Ray Brown, Las Cruces
Jerry Harold Bryant, Portales
James Grady Bulloch, Albuquerque
Walter Clifford Bunyea Jr., Las Cruces
Johnny Dwain Cabe, Carlsbad
Andy Anastacio Cabrera, Las Cruces
Edward A. Cabrera, Gallup
Larry Paul Campos, Roswell
Stephen Michael Carnahan, Albuquerque
David Clyde Carpenter, Los Alamos
Paul Bustamante, Albuquerque
Melvin Carrillo, Roswell
Charles Dominic Caserio, Albuquerque
Anthony Mac Cass, Artesia
Robert F. Chamberlain, Las Cruces
Peter Charlie, Farmington
Daniel Joseph Chavez, Albuquerque
David Cruz Chavez, Las Cruces
Glen Alex Chavez, Glencoe
Gerald Gregory Chino, Cubero
Alan Bradley Cipriani, Albuquerque
Charles Castulo Cisneros, Cerro
Kenneth Richard Clough, Albuquerque
Andrew Coca, Taos
Gregory C. Conant, White Sands
Chris B. Cordova, Mosquero
Stan Leroy Corfield, Gallup
David Wesley Crawford, Grants
Arthur Crespin, Santo Domingo Pueblo
Freddie Paul Chavez, Albuquerque
Ennis Eugene Crow, Lovington
Leonard Erwin Cruce, Hobbs
Sam Cruz, Raton
John Rudolph Cummins Jr., Roswell
Albert Allen Curley, Cubero
Chester Donald Dale, Capitan
Robert David, Albuquerque
Edward Earl Davies, Lovington
Edward Daniel Davis, Albuquerque
Ricardo Gonzalez Davis, Carlsbad
George Robert De Shurley, Roswell
Freddie Carvial Defoor, Tatum
Pedro Ascencion Delora, Santa Fe
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NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
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Keven Thomas Direen, Albuquerque
Robert Melvin Dow, Albuquerque
Billy Joe Demarco, Las Cruces
Warren Leigh Dempsey, Church Rock
Douglass J. Dennis, Artesia
Donald Gene Denney, Albuquerque
James Michael Derda, Albuquerque
Cameron Joseph Devine, Fairacres
Jobie Clayton Dozier, Albuquerque
Ben Goolman Dugan, Lordsburg
Richard Losoya Duran, Las Cruces
Steve Gonzales Duran, Deming
Harry Gordon Dyer, Portales
Michael Randall Earl, Las Vegas
Daniel Winslow Edwards Jr., Albuquerque
Antonio Alvarado Esqueda, Santa Rita
Van Etsitty, Gallup
Richard Dwayne Faircloth, Farmington
Daniel Fernandez, Los Lunas
Lon M. Fletcher, Albuquerque
Sam Eggert, Tucumcari
Charlie Cordova Flores, Las Cruces
Jerry Flores, Las Vegas
Charles Daniel Foley, Hobbs
Duane Garth Forgette, Albuquerque
James Lester Foster, Roswell
George Arthur Foster III, Carlsbad
Jacob Henry Fowner, Albuquerque
George Leonard Fragua, Jemez Pueblo
Clark David Franklin, Carlsbad
John Wesley Frink, Albuquerque
Gary Lee Gadziala, Albuquerque
Terrell Robert Galbreath, Albuquerque
Andres Garcia, Carlsbad
Louis Magin Garcia, Albuquerque
Luperto Garcia, Belen
Ramon Garcia, Albuquerque
Martin Vincent Fanning, Albuquerque
Eddie Leonard Garcia, Belen
Isidro Garcia, Albuquerque
Joe Cecilio Garcia, Cedar Crest
David Jose Garcia, Santa Fe
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Francisco M. Garcia Jr., Tucumcari
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
David Earl Garrapy, Albuquerque
Charles Lee Gass, Hobbs
Luther Anderson Ghahate, Zuni
Roy Allen Gibson, Albuquerque
Robert Lee Graham, Roswell
John Frank Ray Griego, Santa Fe
Thurston A. Griffith Jr., Los Alamos
David Centeno Grijalva, Santa Rita
Jesus Griego, Ribera
Earl Gilbert Grubb, Silver City
Richard Albert Gurule, Albuquerque
Juan Federico Gutierrez, Alamogordo
Reynaldo Guzman, Lovington
Richard Edward Griego, Santa Fe
Harold Eugene Hager, Lovington
John Smith Hamilton, Silver City
Richard Elmer Hamilton, Albuquerque
Len Martin Hanawald, Albuquerque
Ronald Edward Harrison, Carlsbad
Octaviano Martinez Harvey, Santa Rita
Thomas Hayes, Shiprock
Salome Hernandez, Anthony
Frederick Daniel Herrera, Albuquerque
Jose Benjamin Herrera, Las Vegas
Narciso Francis Herrera, Alcalde
Guy Merrill Hodgkins, Los Alamos
Jimmy Ross Hohstadt, Clovis
Larry Douglas Holley, Las Vegas
Ronald David Horn, Eunice
Leroy Larkin Howland, Santa Fe
Gerald Monroe Hubbard, Mora
Joseph Daniel Hurta, Gallup
Reid Allen Isler, Estancia
Frederick G. Jackson Jr., Las Cruces
Billie James, Farmington
Richard Eugene Heister, Albuquerque
Russell James Holland, Clayton
Frank Eloy Garley, Albuquerque
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
William Burch Hern, Albuquerque
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Jose Bernardino Gonzales, Los Lunas
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Lloyd Lee Gooding, Albuquerque
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
THE NEW MEXICAN
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Stephen Kenneth Jennings, Albuquerque
Arthur Harry Johnson, Hildalgo Loop
Larry Dean Johnson, Albuquerque
Zane Everett Johnson, Fruitland
Michael Thomas Jones, Albuquerque
William Coy Jones, Roswell
Edward Lewis Jory Jr., Albuquerque
Donaciano Francis Kaufman, Albuquerque
Chris Albert Keffalos, Bloomfield
George Richard Keller, Farmington
Joe Mac Kemp, Las Cruces
Jerome Don Klein, Hollywood
Kenneth Bruce Kozai, Albuquerque
Michael Joe Krug, Farmington
Mitchell Sim Lane, Albuquerque
Calvin David Largo, Shiprock
John Ault Le Compte, Albuquerque
Willie B. Lee, Socorro
Kent Alan Leonard, Mesilla Park
Conrad Lerman, Albuquerque
Ramon Leyba, Albuquerque
Robert Charles Lopez, Albuquerque
Charles Allison Lott, Albuquerque
Michael Leon Lovato, Belen
Jackie Glen Leisure, Jal
Rudolph Daniel Lovato, Albuquerque
Enrique Lujan, Albuquerque
Frank Dodge Madrid, Puerto De Luna
Frank Jesse Lee Madrid, Vaughn
Gabriel Hernandez Madrid, Las Cruces
Lloyd Burney Magby, Carlsbad
David Reay Malins, Las Cruces
R.B. Marchbanks Jr., Moriarty
Gerald David Markland, Albuquerque
Billie Jaye Marling, Roswell
Julian Ernest Marquez, Albuquerque
Emerson Martin, Church Rock
Guy Wayne Martin, Albuquerque
Billy Richard Martinez, Albuquerque
Bobby Joe Martinez, Fort Wingate
Daniel Tiofilio Martinez, Clovis
Jim Daniel Martinez, Chamisal
Juan Henry Martinez, Albuquerque
Manuel Martinez, Taos Pueblo
Willie Damien Martinez, Santa Fe
Eddie Antony Martinez Jr., Belen
Alcadio Norber Mascarenas, Sapello
Harry Michael Mather, Gallup
Ronald Avery Mall, Farmington
Alex Ezequiel Martinez, Ranchos De Taos
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THE NEW MEXICAN Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Jimmy Clifton Mathis, Jal
Calvin Walter Maxwell, Eddy
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Clovis Lee May, Deming
Guy Edwin McKean Jr., Albuquerque
Christabol Toby McClure, Albuquerque
Howard Michael Meute, Alamogordo
John William Meadows, Albuquerque
Joe Ned Montoya, San Juan Pueblo
Jose Albino Montoya, Grants
Francis Xavier Nava, Santa Fe
Robert Gonzales Montoya, Ruidoso
Ronald Gene McCraw, Lovington
Richard Dean Mcfarlane, Santa Fe
Scott Winston McIntire, Albuquerque
Stanley W. McPherson, Hobbs
Jesse Mechem, Las Cruces
Richard Wayne Mehlhaff, Farmington
Miguel F. Montanez, Carlsbad
Eusebio Montoya, Bernalillo
Joe Herman Montoya, Santa Fe
Steven Mike, Gallup
Peter Kalani Miranda, Holloman AFB
Victor H. Montoya Jr., Los Cordovas
James Michael Moore, Albuquerque
Samuel Morales, Serafina
Hilario Moreno, Belen
Gilbert Morales, Santa Fe
Andres Moreno Jr., Las Cruces
Michael John Morris, Albuquerque
Robert David Morrissey, Albuquerque
Daniel Harold Muniz, Dulce
Alvin James Munson, Albuquerque
Wayne Muskett, Shiprock
Bobby Gene Neeld, Albuquerque
Ronnie Lee Noseff, Hobbs
George Henry Nunez, Picacho
Samuel John Nunn, Deming
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NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Jimmie Floyd Nabours, Deming
Robert Livingston Pierce, Albuquerque
Jimmie Leon Plato, Hobbs
Chris Monroe Pyle, Albuquerque
Angel Alarid Quevedo, Santa Rita
Trine Romero Jr., Roswell
John Sanders Oldham, Tinnie
Stephen Orosco, Tularosa
Pedro Padilla, Albuquerque
Donald Charles Patch, Albuquerque
John Pena, Montezuma
Juanito Perea, Albuquerque
Raymond Platero, Cañoncito
Ramon Felix Ortega Jr., Tucumcari
John Theodore Peters, Fairview
Russell Lowell Platt, Las Cruces
THE NEW MEXICAN
Andrew Jose Pacheco, Tucumcari
Jamie Pacheco, Hobbs
Kurt Byron Pearson, Deming
Earnest Delbert Peina, Zuni Pueblo
Larry Delton Phelps, Albuquerque
Gregory Lee Phillips, Albuquerque
Frank Solis Porter, Deming
Harry Lee Puckett, Albuquerque
Santiago V.E. Quintana, Santa Fe
Samuel Medina Ramirez, Artesia
Curtis H. Ransdell, Farmington
Billy McCall Rea, Tijeras
Antonio Ribera, Raton
Howard Jacob Rice, Hobbs
John A. Rickles, Lovington
John Milton Risner, Las Cruces
Freddie Joe Roberts, Melrose
Jerry Marco Roberts, Hobbs
Virgil Jessie Roberts, Aztec
Kenneth Lee Robertson, Albuquerque
Luia Rodgers, Alamogordo
John David Rogers, Albuquerque
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Victor Munoz Roman, Deming
Charles Anthony Romero, Albuquerque
Sammy Chacon Romero, Roswell
Timoteo Fred Romero, Taos
Sharber Mayfield Rowe, Las Cruces
Ruben Rubio, Clovis
Hector Mario Saenz, Roswell
Richard Saenz, Deming
Fred Roman Saiz, Bernalillo
Cres Padilla Salazar, Albuquerque
Patrick Salazar, Grants
Mel Ernest Salazar Jr., Albuquerque
Camilo James Sanchez, Albuquerque
Charles Anthony Sanchez, Mora
Cresencio Paul Sanchez, Roswell
Jose L. Sanchez, Dexter
Juan Diego Sanchez, Albuquerque
Uvaldo Sanchez, Albuquerque
James Garland Sanders, Farmington
Julius Mitchell Sanders, Roswell
Willie J. Sandfer Jr., Tinnie
Phillip James Sandoval, Santa Fe
Roger Thurston Sawyers, Carlsbad
Benny Sena, Albuquerque
Joe Carl Shaw, Portales
Jack Lloyd Silliman, Carlsbad
Raymond Serna, Mountainair
Max Coleman Simpson, Carlsbad
Robert Alan Sisk, Hurley
Arturo Sylvester Sisneros, Dexter
Roman Sisneros, Anton Chico
Patrick Skeet, Gallup
Danny Le Moyne Smith, Alamogordo
Thomas Franklin Smith, Roy
Roy Stephen Spurgeon, Albuquerque
Kendall Albert Stake, Albuquerque
Don Scott Stanley, Albuquerque
Jeffery Nolan Smith, Albuquerque
Lloyd Edgar Smith, Portales
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Filemon Serrano, Farmington
Manuel Tiodoro Segura, Santa Fe
Jose Scotty Simbola, Peñasco
Gerald Shields Simons, Roswell
Jol Nebane Smith, Santa Fe
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Wallace Frederick Simpkin, Alamogordo
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
THE NEW MEXICAN
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David Louis Stoll, Clovis
Donald L. Summers, Mayhill
Frank Tafoya, Jemez Pueblo
George Eloy Tafoya, La Hoya
John Olivio Tafoya, Albuquerque
Mark Alvan Tafoya, Belen
Florentino Tafoya Jr., Albuquerque
Bobby Allen Taylor, Silver City
Kenneth Warren Teeter, Albuquerque
Henry Leroy Tejada, Las Vegas
Rafael Gabriel Tenorio, Santa Rosa
Sam Tenorio, Encino
Magdaleno Tarango, Lordsburg
Randall Keith Teter, Albuquerque
Harold Allen Tharp Jr., Alamogordo
William Michael Thomas, Carlsbad
Leo Keith Thornton, Farmington
Stephen H. Thornton, Albuquerque
Wayne Artamus Tice, Gallup
Manuel Antonio Torrez, Ranchos de Taos
Antonio Tony Tosa, Jemez Pueblo
Terry Leo Trainor, Lovington
Jerry Elmer Thompson, Artesia
Gabriel Trujillo, Raton
Joseph Felix Trujillo, Deming
Thomas Ambrose Toledo, Jemez Pueblo
Enrique Valdez, Santa Fe
Frank Valdez, Albuquerque
Leroy Frank Valdez, Mora
Phil Isadore Valdez, Dixon
Paul Trujillo, Raton
Gregorio Trujillo Jr., Albuquerque
Robert Steven Trujillo, Santa Fe
Gary Steven Vann, Albuquerque
Julian Victor Velasquez, Willard
Laurencio Vigil, Ocate
Berardinelli Family Funeral Service & Santa Fe Cremation Center at McGee’s Luisa at Alta Vista Street
505-984-8600
Humbly Serving our Veterans and the Santa Fe Community since 1968
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
NEW MEXICO’S FALLEN
Donald Giles Waide, Clayton
Burton Kimball Walker, Albuquerque
Victor D. Westphall III, Albuquerque
Ronald David Whitlow, Albuquerque
Albert Marion Walter, Organ
Thomas Ralph Williams, Albuquerque
John Stanton Wilson, Belen
Juan Jay Wilson, Thoreau
Paul Edward Wolfe, Portales
Dan Yazzie, Continental Divide
Raymond Yazzie, Church Rock
Stephen Andrew Young, Las Cruces
THE NEW MEXICAN
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!
James Monroe Willard, Albuquerque
Dennis Alan Williams, Farmington
Bennie Lee West, Roswell
Lavon Stephen Wilson, Roswell
Jones Lee Yazzie, Tohatchi
Husband and wife share in emotion of communities they visit u
Brian Lee Webber, Albuquerque
Harvie Perry Winkles III, Texico
For couple transporting Wall, it’s not just a job BY ROBERT NOTT
William Leroy Walton, Albuquerque
Juan Manuel Alba Zamora, Las Cruces
Bain Wendell Wiseman Jr., Truth or Consequences
Carlos Zamora Jr., Carrizozo
F
or Bob and Brenda Dobek, who have spent the last several years hauling The Wall That Heals from city to city, the favorite part of the job is the people they encounter. The toughest part is leaving those people behind. “There’s a lot of emotion you share with those people in the local community,” Bob Dobek said. The Dobeks are scheduled to arrive in Santa Fe on March 18, bringing with them the half-size aluminum replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Santa Fe will be their 108th stop. The Dobeks will set up the wall at Fort Marcy Ballpark and then man it for six days, assisting those who want to find a name among the more than 58,000 inscribed on the wall. The Dobeks are going on their fifth year of driving The Wall That Heals around the country. Their rig is a roughly 53-foot-long Toy Hauler Trailer, which houses a living area for the husband-and-wife team and a series of doors on both sides that can open up to create a small history museum for the exhibition. Each leg of the 250-foot wall is 125 feet long, and at its highest point it’s about 5 feet high. It has 24 panels with six columns of names on each panel. As with the original Wall in Washington, it has 58,286
Bob and Brenda Dobek are going on their fifth year of driving The Wall That Heals around the country. COURTESY PHOTO
names on it, including 17 Santa Fe casualties. The Dobeks, who have been married 26 years, spent more than 14 years driving freight across the country before they signed up with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation for this job. Though Bob Dobek, who is near 62, is a military veteran, it was his wife, who comes from a family of veterans, who talked him into tackling the job. “I just thought it would be interesting,” she said. In the old days of commercial trucking, they would rack up 250,000 miles in a year, rarely finding time to interact with others except at truck stops and diners. Now they probably don’t top 35,000 miles a year, and they get to spend five to six days in each community and connect with the people who come to see the Wall. The duo, who are paid employees of the
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foundation, can set up The Wall That Heals in about three hours. It takes another hour to open the museum and information window to help visitors. Local veteran volunteers man the site 24 hours a day, and the Wall remains well lit at night. Bob Dobek said local veterans’ and bikers’ groups volunteer to escort The Wall That Heals into every community. In Santa Fe, the American Legion Riders of Santa Fe (Chapter 26) plans to have between 50 and 70 motorcyclists to escort the trailer from the Route 66 Casino on Interstate 40 in Albuquerque to the City Different. (Chapter head Dave James said the group is looking for more riders. Contact him at 629-2951 if you are interested in joining the escort.) Brenda Dobek said the experience of watching people react to the wall can range from “tear-jerking to happy.” Her husband is aware that many Vietnam veterans do not wish to face up to what the Wall represents. “A lot of them have avoided it. It’s the ‘reminder’ factor — they don’t want to be reminded of it over and over again,” he said. “I try to make them understand that the only thing they did [back then] was their jobs. Veterans have one of the most thankless jobs in the world. They didn’t get a welcome home.” Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
THE NEW MEXICAN
“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave” - Elmer Davis
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“Julia and I are very proud to be able to be a part of Santa Fe and to be in a position to support such an enormous event like the Vietnam Memorial Wall coming to our community. It was only early February of this year that we heard about The Wall That Heals, but it was last November that Julia and I made the decision to take our boys to Washington to see the memorial for themselves. You see, Julia’s Uncle, Gerald M. Biber, is the eleventh name on the wall. He went missing in 1959. My sons’ generation needs to learn of their ancestors. They need to know the cost of war and the price of Freedom. The Wall that Heals is by far the most powerful teaching tool we will see in Santa Fe this year!” Brad and Julia Furry, Kevin, Justin, Brodric and Benjamin Furry’s Buick GMC
2721 Cerrillos Road Santa Fe, NM 87507 • (505) 473-2886