Vietnam vets memorial pays visit to Las Vegas

Jace Radke

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.

As the sun set behind the Spring Mountains and each of the names of the 151 Nevadans killed in the Vietnam War was read Wednesday, Terry Judd was thinking of his brother.

The peal of a single bell was carried on the evening breeze after each name was read, including that of Marine Cpl. Gary Dean Judd. The 19-year-old was killed in February 1969 by heavy artillery in the Quang Nam province.

"You just keep trying to bring a final closure to it," Judd said of his brother's death. "We've tried several times, but I've never been able to do it. I've never given up on my brother."

Judd and his 72-year-old mother, Katherine Schultz, were among more than 100 people attending the opening ceremony of The Moving Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, behind the Eagles Lodge, 1601 E. Washington Ave.

After the last name was read "Taps" was played, a salute was offered, and the gate to the lawn where the wall sits was opened. Judd and his mother slowly walked to where the name of a brother and son was etched in the black stone.

"It's like a big piece of your heart has been ripped out," Judd said through his tears. "It's losing something, and you don't know how or why it had to happen. I was his big brother.

"I have a record of the 'Ballad of the Green Berets' at home, and I still can't listen to it."

Nicole Raudenbush, 23, was one of several people who read some of the names of the 151 Nevadans on the wall. As she read, she broke down when she came to her uncle's name, Willard Vernon Johnson.

"I wasn't prepared for the emotion I felt when I read from that list and got to his name," Raudenbush said. "I never met him, and I felt the least I could do was to read his name."

Johnson, 20, of Fallon, was killed in February 1968 just three months after arriving in Vietnam. Military records say Johnson, a soldier, was killed in the Binh Duong province.

Sens. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Reps. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., and James Gibbons, R-Nev., were among the many Nevada officials to attend the ceremony that included a flyover of F-16 jets in missing man formation.

Carson City resident and retired Navy Capt. Ray Alcorn gave the keynote speech at the ceremony and talked about the men he knew who didn't return from Vietnam. Alcorn, who now serves as executive director of Nevada Veterans Affairs, was shot down on a combat mission and became a prisoner at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" from 1965 to 1973.

"Everyone has their own special thoughts and memories they carry with them as they look at the wall," Alcorn said. "For me the first two things that come to mind are four east, lines 34 and 35."

The wall is divided into segments numbered from east to west, and on lines 34 and 35 of segment four east are the names of two men who died in the Hanoi Hilton as prisoners of war when Alcorn was there.

"I remember the dirty rat-infested floor of the 'Heartbreak Hotel' section of the prison, which was reserved for new prisoners who needed to be broken," Alcorn said. "I've touched my friends' name on the wall, and I remember them dying in that place.

"We have a choice. We can choose to be ambivalent and not remember what the people whose names are on the wall did for us, or we can remind ourselves daily of the sacrifice so many made to ensure our freedom."

Judd has visited the original memorial in Washington that was completed in 1982 and was designed by Maya Ying Lin, a then 21-year-old architecture student at Yale University.

"I visited it for the first time last year," Judd said. "It took me that long to be able to bring myself to go there and see it."

The Moving Wall will be in Las Vegas through Tuesday and is open 24 hours a day. Alcorn said he hopes Las Vegans will take the time to come visit it and remember.

"I often wonder if Maya Ying Lin could ever imagine what this would mean for so many," Alcorn said. "Could she imagine the millions of hands that touch the wall and grasp the hand of a loved one on the other side?

"Did she hear the quiet voice that whispers 'It's OK' to those who visit?"