WESTBOROUGH – The connections were still made, after all these years.
The recollections of childhood and school days, of joining the military to serve in some place called Vietnam.
A connection was broken when that friend did not come home.
On Thursday, July 25, at Rogers Field in Devens, Del Richmond made his connection to Gary N. Whipple – panel 38W, line 43, of the Moving Wall Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“He was my best friend,” said Richmond, a member of the Westborough Veterans Advisory Board. “We joined the service together.”
Whipple headed to Vietnam several weeks ahead of Richmond. Whipple was killed in action about two months after he arrived.
Richmond then talked about how the enemy would set up booby traps in the jungle, such as daisy chain devices, to kill and injure American troops.
Nearby, fellow veteran Richard Moore used a pencil and scrap of paper to rub the name of Vincent B. Lee, a second lieutenant who grew up with Moore in Westborough. He also remembered Leonidas Raisis, a neighbor who was killed in action in 1965.
Moore himself served in the U.S. Navy on board a minesweeper. He recalled the vessel was made of wood and had no air conditioning. He also got to visit most of the ports in the Caribbean.
Moore’s tour ended in November 1963 – just after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“I wanted to get home … my parents loved Kennedy,” he said.
Richmond and Moore were part of a group of about 20 veterans from Westborough who traveled to the Moving Wall Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial – a three-quarters replica of the memorial in Washington, D.C. – was making its only appearance in Massachusetts for 2024 in Devens.
Before going to the wall itself, volunteer guides led the group around a mobile education center featuring photos and items left at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Some of these items were poignant reminders of family and friends left behind – a care package sent back because the recipient had been killed in action; an Army general’s four stars, given to his former platoon.
The guides also spoke about those who did come home to a country in turmoil over the war, and how protestors greeted returning personnel with threats, profanity and spit.
The veterans from Westborough remembered this all too well; Richmond was spat upon when he came home.
Over the years, programs like the traveling wall have helped those who served during Vietnam deal with the pain and anguish of those years.
About the Moving Wall, The Wall that Heals
The traveling exhibit honors the more than 3 million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Vietnam War, and it bears the names of the 58,281 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam.
In addition, the In Memory Program honors those who served during Vietnam and later died as a result of their service.
The Moving Wall, The Wall that Heals, is sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
For information, visit https://www.vvmf.org/The-Wall-That-Heals/
