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As a part of Chaffey’s continual urge to teach students
as much as possible, Debra Porada, head of the Ontario Vietnam Moving Wall
Memorial Planning Committee, has offered to display a piece of the Vietnam
Memorial Wall at Chaffey for all students to have a hands-on experience
of true history. Planning for this event began one full year in advance.
Finally, students will be able to experience something previously only
read about in books.
The
wall will be displayed at Chaffey between October 23-30. Inscribed on the
Vietnam wall are 58,213 names of lives lost during the war. Upon the piece
of wall brought here, there are 14 soldiers from Ontario, 46 from the Chaffey
Joint Union
High
School District, and 240 from surrounding communities.
This
wall is composed of 74 separate frames, the length being 252.83 feet total.
On the largest panels, 137 lines of names are written on it, five or six
names per line.
The
moving wall is a portable replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall, which was
dedicated in 1982. Altogether, more than 2.7 million men and women served
in the Vietnam War from 1959 to 1975. Of the 58,213 names on the memorial,
approximately 1,300 are listed as unaccounted for as either prisoners of
war or missing in action. Because the wall is staked on a level plane approximately
18 inches from the ground, it can’t be placed indoors.
After
visiting Chaffey and touring through the U.S., the memorial wall will come
to rest at a permanent site in Washington D.C.
The
Vietnam Memorial Wall will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn
more about the Vietnam War. The wall will open new doors for those who’ve
never had any interest in or knowledge of one of the most significant moments
in history.
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