The St. Paul

Sample St. Paul

Wall that Heals comes to STA

Jake Spitzack Staff Writer

Whilemany may never get the chance to make the hallowed walk along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. – created in 1982 to honor more than three million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War – this month St. Thomas Academy (STA) is giving people the chance to do the next best thing. STA is hosting The Wall That Heals May 26-29 at the school, 949 Mendota Heights Rd., Mendota Heights. This threequarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be open to the public around the clock, from 2 p.m., May 26, to 2 p.m., May 29. An education center featuring several exhibits about the Vietnam War will be set up near the wall.

The traveling wall bears the names of the 58,281 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War. Just like the actual memorial, names are listed in chronological order based on date of death. Names with a cross next to them are soldiers who were missing in action when the memorial was built. Those with a diamond next to them are soldiers who were missing in action but whose remains were later found.

The 375-foot-long wall is arranged in a V-shape and increases in height to seven-and-a-half feet at its highest point. This gives visitors the illusion that the wall is rising above them as