Candlelight vigil honors Vietnam's fallen soldiers

Family members gathered to find the names of their loved ones Thursday night on the Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, during a special candlelight ceremony in Riverwalk Park. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The only thing missing was a bagpiper's lament from the hillside.

As the motorcycles from Rolling Thunder came down the hill to the Moving Wall at Riverwalk Park Thursday night, followed by a procession of cars, the rumble of the vehicles added a solemn air to a solemn occasion.

Friends and family members of servicemen who died in the Vietnam War were in those cars. They exited quietly, then gathered near one end of the long, somber, black monument, holding lit candles in their hands.

"The Vietnam War left a legacy -- and a hole in many peoples' hearts," Bob "Bulldog" Ousley, chapter president of the local Rolling Thunder group, told the crowd. "These are our brothers and sisters on the wall ... there is a healing at the wall."

The candlelight vigil was a special, more private event to mark the wall's arrival in Bedford County. The opening ceremony for the public will be held Saturday at 10 a.m., and will include a helicopter flyover at 10:30, according to retired Marine Ed Magee. It will be the Marine Corps League that presents the Advancing of the Colors in the opening ceremony, a fact made more poignant, Magee said, because every member of the flag corps served in-country during the war.

After Ousley spoke, family members and others close to the fallen drifted along the wall, candles still burning in their hands, looking for the names for which they had come.

The elderly were present, including Irene Mullins, 83, one of the few -- if not the only -- surviving mother in Bedford County of a Vietnam fatality.

Retired Marine Ed Magee, foreground, listens as Bob "Bulldog" Ousley, president of the local Rolling Thunder chapter, speaks at the candlelight vigil held Thursday night at the Moving Wall in Riverwalk Park. Magee served two tours in Vietnam. A native of Philadelphia, he now lives in Bedford County. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

There were also the very young, from babies to teenagers. Beth Tucker, 8, was there with her brothers C.J., 16, and Jeremy, 14.

"He died in the war," she said, after she studied her grandfather's name on the wall. "He was killed in a helicopter."

In fact, her grandfather was Charles Tucker -- the first Vietnam fatality from Bedford County.

For many, seeing the name brought closure that has waited for more than 40 years.

"We're finally saying goodbye," said Marie Creson after she laid a bouquet of roses at the base of the section bearing her brother's name, Carl Rogers Stovall. "We loved him. We still miss him. I just wish Mama and Daddy could have been here."

As the candles died out, the crowd moved away slowly, leaving the wet chill near the wall for the warmth of their cars.

On the walking trail going up the hill, overlooking the Moving Wall, a bagpiper began to play.