BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT) – Site Manager Dean Murphy has been traveling with the Wall That Heals for several months now, and he knows a good town when he sees one.
(Photo: The truck carrying The Wall That Heals drives down Main Street in Brockway)
“Brockway is off to a great start,” Murphy said. “As we came into town, we had the escort riders, people lining the streets, cheering us on and clapping their hands. That’s what we want to see. The Wall was built to make sure that the soldiers who fought in the war are never forgotten. To honor their memory.”
Murphy works for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. This is the same group that built the original wall in Washington D.C.
After taking a circuitous route through Brookville, Reynoldsville, Sykesville, and DuBois to allow people to view the wall as it rolled by, The Wall That Heals rolled into Brockway to a Main Street lined with flags and residents cheering it on.
“I’m just overwhelmed by how many people turned out today,” said Brockway Mayor Bill Hrinya. “It’s a testament to the people of Brockway and their love for this nation and our veterans.”
Along the way, the Wall made an impact on those who saw it – even though it did not stop in their communities.
Brookville’s John Pacsai was part of the motorcycle escort. He said that a number of organizations were involved, making up the 117 bikes that Murphy counted.
“Barber Trucking, who was pulling the Mobile Education Center, contacted us about being part of the escort once the Wall got to Brookville,” Pacsai said.
Pacsai described himself as being a part of “all things riding,” and he sits on a number of boards. Once he got the information, he was ready to go.
“It was amazing to see all these communities turn out,” Pacsai added. “Sykesville had hundreds of people lining the route. DuBois had all the fire departments standing at attention. These small towns really support their veterans.”
State Representative Cris Dush got to be a part of the motorcycle procession.
“I actually rode with the riders,” Dush said. “My cousin, Bobby, was killed 49 years ago from yesterday. It’s a very poignant day for me. Seeing all those people waving along the route, it made me proud to be from this part of the country. It was an honor for me. They asked me to lead the prayer before we left.
“Our emergency responders all showed up. We had the flags flying from ladder trucks over the procession. We had little kids lined up – every time I saw them next to a saluting veteran, they were saluting, too. It just tugs on the heartstrings. We’re raising our kids right around here.”
The Wall came into town along Route 219 then turned onto Main Street and went past the crowd before turning again on 7th Avenue on its way to Taylor Memorial Park. This particular Wall has only been to 17 cities before coming to Brockway.
The old traveling monument was a half-scale design. This new Wall is a three-quarters scale – 375 feet long and 7 ½ feet high at the center. The angle is as close as the organizers can get to the original in Washington.
“This one has more of a presence,” Murphy said. “It’s taller than you and, from the middle, seems endless”
Any rubbings done in Brockway will only have an eighth of an inch difference from one done in D.C.
“We encourage rubbings,” Murphy said. “We have a few rules like we don’t want crayons because that’s difficult to clean. We use lead pencils and are willing to assist if people are unable to do so.”
Murphy and a few others are the only people allowed to climb a ladder to make a rubbing from the Wall.
“This is a national monument that we carry around the country,” Murphy said. “We want to make sure it’s presentable to every community we go to.”
The Wall that Heals, according to Murphy, is an important name because the wall was envisioned by designer Maya Lin as a healing wound.
“We’re still going through that healing 50 years later,” Murphy said of the nation. “We do not pass judgment on the war. We honor the warrior.”
When Lin designed the original Wall, the names were printed by date of death, starting at the middle and moving to the right. They then stop and are picked up again at the end of the left side of the wall and go back to the middle. In this way, the beginning and end of the Vietnam War are brought together at the apex.
“The design is not intuitive,” Murphy said. “It’s not hard to understand once you know it. People walk up to it and say, ‘It’s not in alphabetical order.’ So we will help them with finding names.”
Murphy trains any volunteers for over an hour to make sure they understand the Wall and how to find the names.
“Everybody’s going to bring their own (reactions) to the Wall and take their own away,” Murphy said. “I had the opportunity in my hometown to see a gentleman who’s on the Wall, to see his mother come out, to see his son come out, to see his best friends come out. Each and every one of them had their own reactions because they knew him at a different level. People react differently to seeing it. I’ve seen someone stop 100 yards from the Wall and then leave. When he comes back, he’s 75 yards away and leaves. When he comes back, he’s looking at the names. By the end, he’s helping other people find names.”
Murphy retired from the University of Central Missouri at a job he said he loved 90 percent of the time. He loves this job more. He feels that he carries on the mission of the Vietnam War Memorial Fund’s founder Jan C. Scruggs.
“This Wall is paid for by the American people,” Murphy said. “No taxpayer money is used to run it. The continued support of the American people is why we keep doing what we do.
One aspect of his around-the-country job is what people leave behind. Murphy said that each community has unique stories and people leave photographs or notes on the Wall. Sometimes, they find POW/MIA bracelets. Each item is returned to the community.
“It means more to the community,” Murphy said. “If the local historical society wants to set up an exhibit about the time the Wall came to town, they can include those items.”
Sometimes, items people bring to the wall lead to what Murphy calls “Wall Magic.” He encourages everyone who talks to him to google the term.
“In my last stop, a person had a POW/MIA bracelet on,” Murphy said of Wall Magic. “She took off the bracelet and came to the volunteers because she couldn’t find the name she was looking for. They came to me and I looked it up. It wasn’t in our database. So, I do a quick Google search for this gentleman, Lieutenant Commander Edward Davis. He was a Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam. I find that he was one of the POWs who was released by the Vietnamese and came home. He goes on to a career as a motivational speaker, lived for 33 more years, died in 2006, so he lived a long and productive life. Everybody’s relieved. She goes to put the bracelet back on, a stainless-steel-looking bracelet, in very good repair, and it literally snaps in half as she put it on her wrist. Everybody’s shocked. It’s this bracelet she’s worn all these years. I said, ‘Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe you don’t have to wear that burden anymore.’”
Now that the Mobile Education Center is parked behind Taylor Memorial Park, Murphy had a chance to rest before the eight-hour-long construction of the Wall. The community scheduled its opening ceremonies on Thursday, June 28, and the Wall will remain open from the time construction ends to the time it breaks down on Sunday, July 1. Someone will be with the Wall at all times to assist the public.
More information can be found at www.brockwayfourth.com.
Brockway Police Chief Terry Young escorts the Wall that Heals into town.
117 motorcycles accompanied the Wall on its journey into Brockway.
The Wall that Heals drives into Brockway.
The members of the Wall’s escort pose for a photo in front of the truck.
Side detail of the truck carrying the Wall.
Side detail of the truck carrying the Wall.
Side detail of the truck carrying the Wall.
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