Traveling Vietnam Memorial wall visits Auraria campus

The Auraria campus will be the setting of a traveling veterans memorial on Nov. 5 and 6.

Dubbed by its creators simply "The Wall," this 370-foot memorial is an 80 percent sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that can be found in Washington, D.C.

Since 1998, the American Veterans Traveling Tribute organization has been traveling around the country with the mission of honoring military veterans.
When it comes to The Wall, partners Steve Doty and Don Allen take their positions very seriously.

"It's not a job; it's a mission," stressed owning partner Steve Doty.

This mission has taken them all over the country. Traveling sometimes over 200 days a year, The Wall has moved from coast to coast several times, and has gone to all different types of venues. The Auraria campus is the second campus that will house the exhibit this year.

Like its Washington counterpart, The Wall lists the names of 58,253 men killed in combat during the Vietnam War. Unlike that memorial, however, this wall travels with a display called the Cost of Freedom.

The Cost of Freedom consists of nine panels featuring the names of U.S. soldiers who have died in combat from the Vietnam War up through Sept. 11, 2001. These names are represented by golden nametags.

Veterans themselves, Doty and Allen believe it's important to honor veterans without needing to make a statement about politics.

"We don't have a political agenda. We're just about honoring those who served," said Allen.

Despite this intention to stay away from politics, they sometimes find that people come with their own agenda.

"Sometimes people will want to talk politics," said Allen.
Both Doty and Allen said they try to respectfully decline any conversation like that whenever possible.

Doty and Allen said that usually there is an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. As a nonprofit, they do not advertise but rely solely on word-of-mouth publicity to get venues.

Venues include anything from college campuses to church parking lots. They said during one event, roughly 20,000 people showed up to a town of 900.
Their word-of-mouth seems to be working. They already have bookings up to September 2010.

The Wall will have an opening ceremony Thursday, Nov. 5, at noon and will close Friday, Nov. 6, at noon.
It will be located at Lawrence Street Park (the field in front of St. Catejan's). For more information on The Wall, you can check out the website at http://www.avtt.org.