April in America and the Sorrow of War

The war on the other side of the world ended 42 years ago, but for many Americans, the losses still haunt us today.

50 years ago today, 33 Marines and soldiers of Fox 2-1 died in the Battle of Binh Son. The words on the wreath placed in front of the Vietnam War Memorial wall (National Mall, Washington DC) are still fresh, covered in dew on a day in late April 2017.

Every year at the end of April, flower baskets, letters and small souvenirs like these are brought here and placed in front of the cold stone slabs.

The war on the other side of the world ended 42 years ago, but for many Americans, the losses still haunt us today.

Maureen Murphy-Payne, a volunteer at the memorial, is one of them.

Maureen, from the Town of Norwood, Massachusetts, was an investigator for the local police department before retiring.

A few years ago, she joined the volunteer group at this Vietnam War Memorial.

Every year, two or three times, she and her brother, also a retired police officer, arrange to fly from Massachusetts to Washington DC to volunteer for 1-2 weeks. Their brother was an American soldier who died in Vietnam in June 1968.

They wanted to do something for their deceased brother. Maureen said that the day the family received the news of her brother's death, everyone was silent. Until now, the void that her brother left for his relatives is still too big.

“After reading more documents, I learned that it was the year the war was most fierce and this memorial stone also shows that, 1968 was the year the most American soldiers died,” said Ms. Maureen.

She continued thoughtfully: “The words on this stone wall are not dry at all, the names are named after the date they left. After each name, if it ends with a small diamond, it means that the sacrifice has been confirmed. If it is marked with a plus sign, it means that they are still missing, and their bodies have not been found.

In the event that missing persons return alive, their names will be circled as a symbol of life.

The black stone wall engraved with more than 58,200 names and as many different fates, itself speaks to the tragedy of war.

For decades, this memorial has been a place for reflection and remembrance, not a place to glorify anything.”

My conversation with Maureen was interrupted by an elderly woman who wanted to help me find the name of a soldier on the stone. A soldier who is still missing in action in Vietnam in 1965.

The woman said: The mother of this American soldier is too old to come here, she was asked to come to this memorial to confirm whether her son's body has been found?

Maureen quickly found out the soldier's name. She expressed regret that he was still missing!

There is another reason why Ms. Maureen arranged to come to Washington DC this time: on April 22, a group of veterans from all over the United States who served in the Vietnam War gathered at this memorial.

On the morning of April 22, an emotional reunion took place between the veterans, without any handshakes, just modest greetings from the now elderly, some in wheelchairs and needing the help of volunteers.

“It’s still hard to talk about something that happened more than 40 years ago. There’s so much criticism about the war. After the memorial service, there was a little chill running through me, I felt colder than the temperature outside,” said veteran Jim Orman.

“Today, children are brought here by their parents, and students are taught by teachers who use the illustration wall in history lessons.

The first thing they said when they arrived was “So many people died”. But I know that in Vietnam, the number of people who died in this war was in the millions, too large for any stone tablet to record all of them.

Everything here is to remind everyone on this Earth of the brutality of war,” said Maureen.

According to Tuoi Tre