BROWNSTOWN – The traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall will be opening to the public later today at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Brownstown.
The wall is a three-quarter scale replica of the Washington D.C. memorial and includes a mobile education center.
Assembly is scheduled to start this morning and should be finished by 2 p.m. today, according to organizers.
If you or someone you know has a family member, friend, or comrade whose name is on the wall, you are encouraged to come and install the panel containing that name.
After the last panel is installed at about 2 p.m. Wednesday, the wall will be open to visitors. It will then be open 24 hours a day and is free to the public through 1:45 p.m. Sunday.
There will be a welcome home opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday. All Vietnam veterans are invited to attend.
Thursday also is the annual Agent Orange Awareness Day. On Aug. 10, 2020, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund held its first Agent Orange awareness event. “Bring Light” illuminated the entire Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C, with orange candlelight from the wall itself to The Three Servicemen Statute, the flagpole, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial statue, and the In Memory plaque.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb recently proclaimed the week of Aug. 6 to 12 as Agent Orange Awareness Week.
The first use of Agent Orange is thought to have occurred on Aug. 10, 1961, and 62 years later, Vietnam veterans who returned home — hoping to leave the war behind them — are fighting and dying from exposure to Agent Orange.
