Volunteers finish setting up The Wall That Heals in Del Rio
Heavy rain and hail did not stop volunteers from finishing The Wall That Heals at Camp Del Rio, where it stayed open around the clock through Sunday.
Heavy rain and hail did not stop volunteers from finishing the setup of The Wall That Heals at the Camp Del Rio soccer field in the 1100 block of West De La Rosa Street, and the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial remained open 24 hours a day until 2 p.m. Sunday.
More than 100 Del Rioans attended the opening ceremony, where organizers said Del Rio’s Vietnam War veterans were “welcomed home.” F.O.B. Del Rio, the local veterans’ advocacy group led by founder and president Adrian Bitela, arranged for the exhibit to come to town and helped turn a weather-delayed setup into a public gathering that drew veterans, families and students.
The ceremony included the Jesus M. Limones Jr. American Legion Post 595 Honor Guard posting the colors, Del Rio Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez giving the invocation, Rudy Perez singing the national anthem and performances by the Del Rio High School Air Force Junior ROTC. Bobby Barrera, a Del Rio Vietnam veteran who was wounded in Vietnam and later served as president of Disabled Veterans of America, delivered the keynote address and described the memorial as a way to honor those who served and the families who lost loved ones.
The Wall That Heals is a three-quarter-scale traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Its mobile Education Center travels on a 53-foot trailer, giving visitors a place to learn as they move from the wall to the display. According to the brochure, the wall carries 58,276 names, and more than 1,500 service members from the Vietnam War remain unaccounted for. The exhibit has visited 600 cities.
For Del Rio veterans, students and families, the weeklong stop offers a direct way to spend time with the memorial without leaving town. The wall stretches 375 feet, and the Education Center adds a teaching component that makes the exhibit more than a photo stop. Del Rio last hosted The Wall That Heals from March 5-8, 2020, with a Welcome Home Ceremony at Roosevelt Park on March 7, 2020, making this return a familiar and deeply local moment for Val Verde County.
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