Vietnam memorial in Hoffman Estates: 'It still brings tears to your eyes'
Whether paying tribute to a beloved soldier lost long ago or simply coming to terms with an especially painful chapter of American history, those who visited the Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Thursday in Hoffman Estates found it an emotional experience.
Tina Nepermann's eyes glistened as she walked away from the name of her brother, Michael W. Hagie, on The Wall That Heals - a 250-foot replica of the Washington, D.C., memorial.
Hagie, an Aurora resident, was only 19 years old when he was shot in the head while trying to assist a buddy on June 8, 1969, barely a month after his arrival in Vietnam, his sister said.
Nepermann, who now lives in Dundee Township, was only 12 years old at the time. She still remembers her mother's reaction when a chaplain came to their door, confirming her instincts after letters from her son had stopped arriving.
"She just tore apart, what can I say?" Nepermann said.
Though Nepermann said she first saw the traveling wall some years ago when it was in Carpentersville, she feels like she's visiting her brother on behalf of their entire family whenever she gets to see it.
When Gerry Greifenstein of Arlington Heights arrived Thursday to visit the name of J. McKeon, with whom she grew up in her native Chicago neighborhood of Bridgeport, it was on behalf of the soldier's now-deceased family.
McKeon was the son of Joseph McKeon, the neighborhood funeral director, and was only slightly older than herself, Greifenstein said.
"We were very close to the family," she added. "It was a small, close community. It still brings tears to your eyes after all this time."
Jack Darr and Rick Grimm, two Air Force veterans who served in Vietnam, organized the memorial's stop in their hometown of Elgin two years ago. They traveled to the parking lot of the Hoffman Estates Cabela's store to see it again Thursday.
The memorial defines the change in the way veterans are treated in this country since the end of the Vietnam War, they say.
"It's not just about the Vietnam veterans, it's a historical picture of what our country went through," Darr said. "It was a different era, politically and socially, and now it's gotten better again."
Grimm said the photos and names on the memorial are a poignant reminder of all the uncles and aunts a younger generation never got to meet.
But of course, the memorial has special meaning to veterans themselves, Darr added.
"You have people that have never been to it, never planned to be at it, who break down," he said.
The memorial will be open 24 hours a day until 8 a.m. Monday, June 8. It is intended to replicate the experience at the wall in Washington, D.C., where people can go in the middle of the night if they want to ensure a sense of quiet solitude, said Tim Tetz, director of public outreach for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
In fact, the modern lighting on the traveling wall is even more dramatic than what exists in Washington, D.C., Tetz said. Visitors are really missing something if they never see the memorial at night, he added.
Diane Schneider, retail marketing manager at Cabela's, agreed.
"The names pop out," she said. "They're literally glowing."
Schneider began working to bring the traveling wall to the Hoffman Estates Cabela's store four years ago.
Apart from providing adequate space for the wall and its related exhibits, each host is able to bring its own personalized touch to the presentation. For Cabela's, it was the 1,411 American flags surrounding the site, which commemorate the names on the most recent list of Vietnam POWs and MIAs, she said.
The effort has proved to be one the entire community has gotten behind, Schneider said, from organizations volunteering to help guard the wall through the night to local junior high students who will help properly gather up the flags when the display closes Monday morning.