'It tears your heart out': Vietnam War 'Wall that Heals' is in Erie this weekend

Marlen Brumagin doesn't plan to visit the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Erie over Memorial Day weekend.

The Wall that Heals is a three-quarter-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known as the Vietnam Wall, in Washington, D.C. It will be at the Zem Zem Shrine from Friday through mid-afternoon on Memorial Day. The local visit is sponsored by Erie News Now and Lilly Broadcasting.

Brumagin, of Meadville, has visited the permanent memorial in Washington, D.C., and a replica exhibited in Meadville's Diamond Park in 2018.

Brumagin doesn't think he can visit the memorial, or a replica of the memorial, again.

"It tears your heart out," he said.

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To honor two Wattsburg High School friends killed during the Vietnam War, and to make rubbings of their engraved names, Brumagin went to the permanent memorial in Washington and to the replica exhibit in Meadville. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and traveling replicas of the memorial list the names of more than 58,200 American servicemen and women who died in the war.

Wattsburg High School graduates James Galkowski and Larry Beebe were killed weeks apart in Vietnam. Beebe, 21, an Army staff sergeant, died on May 3, 1969. Galkowski, also 21, an Army first lieutenant, was killed on June 15, 1969.

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"You see the wall and you remember the boys who were your friends. And you wonder what if," Brumagin said.

Brumagin was rated 1A for the draft while working in Erie after high school. He quit his job and moved to Meadville for a tool and die apprenticeship at Talon. He was given a deferment through his apprenticeship when he registered with the draft board in Meadville.

Brumagin never was drafted but honors friends and others who served in Vietnam.

"I went to the wall to pay my respects to them and to honor what they did," Brumagin said. "Vietnam was a thankless war. Those who served and survived weren't honored when they came home."

'You ... wonder why your friend's name is on the wall and yours is not'

On Charles Merriott's first day in Vietnam, he met a helicopter pilot instructor who was to be his roommate. He also met his roommate's best friend.

His two new acquaintances flew a mission the next morning and were shot down. The roommate's friend died.

"I was there less than 24 hours, and someone I'd met had been killed," Merriott said. "I was thinking, I have 364 days to go."

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Merriott, of Millcreek, is a retired Air Force colonel. He flew a gunship helicopter during the Vietnam War, ferrying Green Berets behind North Vietnamese lines and scouting movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to target airstrikes.

The Vietnam tour was part of Merriott's more than 25 years in the Air Force. His service also included a four-year assignment as a liaison to the State Department in Washington, where he saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial almost daily.

"For anybody who served in Vietnam, putting a hand on the wall and seeing the name of someone you knew is very emotional," Merriott said. "You also see your reflection and wonder why your friend's name is on the wall and yours is not."

Visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial or a replica of it is an education, said Merriott, who led the Junior Air Force ROTC program at McDowell High School for 22 years after moving to Erie.

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"It's an education because it shows that war is not just a three-letter word, that young men and women die in war," Merriott said. "All those names were people with wives, husbands, mothers, fathers and friends."

The war took a tremendous toll nationwide.

"There wasn't a small town in this country that wasn't hit by the loss of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine. There were less than 2,000 people in my small town in Oklahoma, and we had three kids who died in Vietnam right after high school," Merriott said.

Sixty-one Erie County servicemen were killed in the Vietnam War, according to the Erie County Office of Veterans Affairs, which collected their photographs and stories for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's national online "Wall of Faces" in 2016-17.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial takes its own toll.

"You can't go to the wall without tears," Merriott said. "It's that emotional."

The wall, its Erie visit and more Vietnam memorials

The Wall that Heals has been traveling the country since its launch on Veterans Day 1996 by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The replica and its accompanying mobile education center last year traveled more than 13,000 miles and were displayed in 26 communities.

The granite replica wall is 375 feet long and 7.5 feet tall and includes 140 panels of engraved names. Visitors are invited to do a rubbing of a service member's name.

The Wall that Heals will open Friday at Zem Zem Shrine, 2525 W. 38th St. A "Welcome Home" ceremony will honor Vietnam veterans Friday at noon. The wall will be lighted for nighttime visits and will remain open around the clock until Memorial Day at 2 p.m.

Admission is free.

The mobile education center is a trailer with exhibits including "Hometown Heroes" and "Items Left Behind," items representative of memorabilia left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Another Vietnam Wall replica, the Moving Wall, was in Erie in 2010, at First Assembly of God on Oliver Road. It will be in Hermitage on Aug. 25-29.

A permanent Erie County Vietnam Veterans Memorial is at Erie County Veterans Memorial Park at 26th Street and Glenwood Park Avenue.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmyers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Wall that Heals: Vietnam Memorial replica in Erie through Memorial Day