Replica of Vietnam Memorial coming to Kalispell

Hundreds of veterans on motorcycles traveled a thousand miles to reach Washington D.C. to touch the names of those lost in Vietnam. For one Montana man, the pilgrimage to the Vietnam Memorial Wall was the first time he felt understood since he had served decades before.

“It was 2013 and 10 days across the heartland,” said John Burgess of Kalispell. “It was a homecoming — finally an acknowledgement of what we did.”

He said each person was tied to an era of soldiers different from those who had served before and after the Vietnam War.

After returning home from conflict, Vietnam veterans slipped back into life as civilians. Their medals were hidden away. They never put their time of service on job applications. They don’t swap war stories.

After years of hiding that part of who he was, Burgess stood before 58,267 names of soldiers on the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

His wife stood next to him. Some people traced the names they recognized. Others stood back, their gaze following the chevron shape of the memorial.

After Burgess traveled to the wall in 2013, he decided to bring that feeling home.

He and his wife, Willa, established the Vietnam Veterans of America Northwest Montana Chapter 1087.

“The wall made me want to go back home and make sure that the community never forgot the Vietnam vet,” Burgess said. “Our motto is ‘never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.’ We will stick to that.”

TODAY, Burgess wears a hat proclaiming the war he participated in and the chapter he now calls part of his family.

He twisted one of the two braids hanging from his beard as he talked about watching people leave Kalispell to join the war. He was 17 when he decided to enter the U.S. Navy.

His schoolmate Terry Baker realized the conflict in Vietnam wasn’t going to go away when he said goodbye to his brother, who shipped out as a battlefield medic in 1968.

Baker’s draft notice arrived soon after he turned 18. He joined the infantry.

John Wise had just finished a weekend of drag racing in California when he returned home to find his “invitation” waiting for him. He picked the U.S. Airforce.

Wise said schoolmates died overseas and they wouldn’t hear about it for years, “because you didn’t ask.”

Though each veteran came from a different branch in the military, Burgess said each person knew there were 11 names on the wall in Washington that belonged to Flathead Valley locals who never came home — and others who had signed up for service out of state. But they didn’t know each other.

It took Wise years to visit the wall. He had one name in mind. A friend he never got to say goodbye to.

“I saw his name there, I even etched it,” Wise said. “It’s things you find for closer. Though it never really closes.”

For Baker, the wall had answers.

He knew the nicknames of his three closest friends he served with. But it wasn’t until the memorial was created that he knew he had a place to call to ask their first and last names. At the edge of the wall, he said he began to learn about who those soldiers were outside of Vietnam.

“That dedication, it was the first time we felt like someone was saying ‘we’re there for you, thank you,’” he said.

Today, each man is part of the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, where there are more than 100 members.

“For some strange reason, without this chapter being formed, we would never talk to one another,” Burgess said. “I’ve known Terry since we were in the sixth grade, but I never associated with him. Now I can’t get rid of him. The wall brought us together.”

THIS FALL, the chapter will bring the wall to Kalispell — at least a 250-foot replica known as The Wall that Heals.

Jim Knotts, president of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Replica and Mobile Education Center, said the mobile memorial allows veterans who haven’t had the opportunity to voyage to D.C. a similar experience.

“It helps veterans from all America’s conflicts to find healing and a powerful connection through their common military experience,” he said.

He said last year, more than 200,000 people visited the exhibit. Since it was created in 1996, it’s traveled to 500 communities across the United States.

The wall will arrive in Kalispell Sept. 7 and then continue its journey Sept. 10. The local chapter will be looking for volunteers to help set up and take down the wall.

Burgess said the memorial’s presence is just one way the local chapter serves their community and veterans.

From November 2016 through April, the chapter recorded more than 1,623 volunteer hours.

They spent 442 of those hours at member roundtables with people who can be a voice for veterans, such as state senators and representatives, therapy program managers, insurance specialist and health advocates.

They recorded 205 hours at the Montana Veteran Home, where they host bingo each month. They also fundraise for residents’ clothes and deliver sweets during the holidays.

Another 253 hours were spent fundraising for local veteran organizations and events.

“The Vietnam vet has never stopped taking pride in what they did and do for their country,” Burgess said. “It’s that society would not let them express it.”

He said in recent years, he’s enjoyed gathering with other veterans, wearing symbols of their soldier identities in public and continuing to work for their communities.

For more information about the local chapter, call 406-857-3609 or find them on Facebook by searching Vietnam Veterans of America Northwest Montana Chapter 1087. Donations supporting the Wall that Heals can be sent to Vietnam Veterans of America PO Box 207, Somers, MT 59932.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.