OPENING CEREMONIES                                                                

Friday, September 22, 2017 8:30AM

Opening  Presentation
All color guards will be brought into the park by musical presentation.

Introduction
Kimberly Terpening, Commander American Legion Post #961 Retired Colonel, NYANG

Posting of Colors
American Legion Post #961 Color Guard

This flag was flown over Chu Lai, Vietnam*

National Anthem
Andy Pratt

Invocation
Deacon  Bob Wubbenhorst, Post Chaplain

Welcoming Remarks
Ron Conover, Town of Bolton Supervisor

Greetings
Lieutenant General Stephen G. Olmstead United States Marine Corps, Retired

Laying of KIA Women's Wreath

Kimberly Terpening and Gold Star Mothers

Music by City of Albany Gaelic Pipe Band

Song from The Wall
Tom Volchek

Ribbon Cutting
Kimberly Terpening and Gold Star Mothers

Amazing Grace by City of Albany Gaelic Pipe Band

Benediction
Deacon Bob Wubbenhorst, Post Chaplain

 

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CLOSING CEREMONIES

Monday, September 25, 2017
9:00 to 10:00 AM

Closing  Thoughts
Kimberly Terpening , Commander American Legion Post #961 Retired Colonel, NYANG

Color Guards
American Legion Post #961

Benediction
Deacon  Bob Wubbenhorst, Post Chaplain

Taps and 21 Gun Salute
Tri-County Council of Vietnam Era Veterans

 

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HISTORY AND FACTS

*In 1967 Fred Brown was serving in MCB-6 as a gunner's mate. Fred deployed to Chu Lai, Vietnam on August 1, 1967. The flag that flew over his base camp came home with Fred when he returned to the United States in 1968. That same flag will fly over the Memorial Wall while it is in Bolton Landing.

Just like Fred, Henry Gousineau saw this flag every day he was in Vietnam. But Henry didn't return. He was killed on January 4, 1968 while riding as a door gunner on a helicopter.

Today we fly this flag to honor Henry and the other 58,318 men and women who gave their lives for the right to fly this flag.

• The official name of the memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
• Twenty-one-year-old Maya Lin , an undergraduate of Yale University, designed the memorial after winning a national design contest open to the           American public. 1,421 design entries were submitted.
• On March 11, 1982, the design and plans received Federal approval, and the work began at the site on March 16, 1982.
• The wall is made up of two parts of black granite, each 246.75 feet long
• Just steps away from the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the memorial was completed in late October and dedicated on November 13,        1982.
• On November 10, 1984 President Ronald Reagan accepted the Memorial from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Its control was then                   transferred to the National Park Service and it officially became a National Monument.
• No federal funds were used to construct the wall. Thanks to contributions from corporations, foundations, veterans and civic organizations, and           more than 275,000 individual Americans, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund raised almost $9 million.
• While the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund pays for additions to the wall, it is the Department of Defense that determines whose names are to be     inscribed.
• There are currently 58,318 names on the Wall.
• The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was added to the wall on Memorial Day in 1999. According to the Pentagon , his name was          Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., an Air Force technical sergeant who died June 8, 1956. His name is listed with that of his son, Marine Corps  Lance            Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Ill, who has a casualty date of September 7, 1965.

•  The names on the Wall are listed chronologically by date of death.
• Next to each person's name there is a specific symbol. A diamond denotes a confirmed death, and a plus sign denotes missing at the end of the       war and remains missing. A circle, the symbol of life, would be drawn around the plus sign should a person be found to be alive - it has never been    used.
• There are three sets of fathers and sons on the wall.
•  39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
•  8,283 on the Wall were just 19 years old.
• The largest age group on the Wall, 33,103 were 18 years old.
• 12 on the Wall were 17 years old.
• 5 on the Wall were 16 years old.
•  One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock, was 15 years old.
•  997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
• 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
• 31 sets of brother are on the Wall.
•  8 women are on the wall, they nursed the wounded.
• The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 - 245 deaths.

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SPECIAL THANK YOU to our DONORS

St. Andrews Ace Hardware - Queensbury Marie Allison - Quilt
Cedar Graphics - Kate VanDyke
Cate' s Italian Garden - Buddy and Cathy Foy Finishing Touches - Susan Cady
First Choice Construction -  Warrensburg Chris Gabriels
The Gage Family Home Depot - Queensbury
The Huddle Kitchen and Bar-Bob & Dawn O'Keefe Lake George Mirror
Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Olmstead, USMC, Ret.
The Sagamore Resort

This list reflects donations received as of August 2, 2017.

Any additional donations will be recognized at a later date.

John Devitt founded The Moving Wall in 1984 after attending the 1982 dedication at The Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Moving Wall is a half-sized replica of the memorial and has visited every state in the union as well as Puerto Rico, Canada, Guam, and Saipan. It has been displayed over 1,300 times.