Wall a reminder of freedom's price

A rainbow shines in the sky Thursday above the Moving Wall Vietnam Memorial, currently visiting DeRidder’s Beauregard Parish Fairgrounds.

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By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
jamieenews@bellsouth.net

DERIDDER – Standing as a stark reminder this Independence Day weekend that freedom has a price, the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall exhibit opened to the public here Thursday and remains through Monday.
Over 58,000 names of American servicemen and women who paid that price are listed on the Moving Wall, all soldiers who gave their lives for their country. Thirteen hundred are still unaccounted for - Prisoners of War and Missing in Action - and are marked with a “+” sign to indicate their status.
Eight of the names are those of servicewomen; 16 are military chaplains.
The Moving Wall is a precise half-size replica of the granite Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C. It has been touring the country since 1984, giving those who have never visited the nation’s capitol the opportunity to experience the memorial.
Efforts by several area American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, as well as several other organizations and individuals, brought the Moving Wall to DeRidder’s Beauregard Parish Fairgrounds last week, where it will continue to be on display until Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday, volunteers began work setting up the base for the monument, and the granite blocks were raised into position by crane Thursday morning over the course of several hours.
Miguel Pousson of Eunice was one of the volunteers involved in the project. Pousson served with the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam from Sept. 1966 to April 1968. He served as an honor guard during the Opening Ceremonies.
For Pousson, like many, viewing the memorial is a very personal experience; he lost two cousins in Vietnam, Michael Wayne Pousson and Wallace Ogea. Michael Pousson was killed mere yards away from where Miguel was standing at the time.
“The importance of the Moving Wall is to remind people who can’t go to Washington. It’s also a healing experience for us,” Pousson said.
Six names on the Wall listed Eunice as their home of record; Andrus F. Duplechin (d. 1970), James D. Feucht (d. 1968), Alvin Monday (d. 1968), Donald W. Sistrunk (1970), Charles R. Williams (d. 1966), and Jimmy Williams (d. 1968).
Numerous others had personal and family connections to the Acadiana region.
Behind each of the 58,256 names listed on the Moving Wall is a story, a story that was cut short over 30 years ago on the other side of the world.
During Thursday’s opening ceremonies, their sacrifices were remembered, as wreaths were placed in front of the Moving Wall in honor of all the fathers and mothers, the spouses, the sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters who never returned home from the war, and a Warrior’s Farewell field memorial was performed by Honor Guard veterans in their memory.
The Moving Wall memorial events continue today with POW-MIA Remembrance Day. At 8 a.m., retired Army chaplain Lt. Colonel Gerald Smith will perform a field worship service from the hood of a jeep, as was traditional in Vietnam, followed by a laying of wreaths at 10 a.m.
At 7 p.m., a candlelight remembrance will be held to honor POWs and MIAs, particularly those who hailed from Louisiana.
On Monday, a final Warrior’s Farewell will be held Monday at 10 a.m., followed by closing prayers of remembrance at noon before the wall is disassembled.