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Traveling Vietnam Wall welcomed to City Park

By Evan Bevins 3 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Susan Shelton came to City Park Thursday seeking a name on a scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Wallace Thibodeau.

"I was only 19. We were engaged, and he had to go back to Vietnam, one last tour for five months," she said.

But two months later, he was killed.

"(It) broke my heart," said Shelton, a Parkersburg resident originally from California. "It was a long time ago, but it's still right here," she said, pointing to her head.

Shelton was one of dozens of people on hand for the opening ceremony to welcome the American Veterans Traveling Tribute Vietnam Wall, an 80% scale replica of the memorial in the nation's capital returning to Parkersburg for the first time since 2018.

The wall bears the names of 58,318 Americans who died in service to the country during the war.

"One thousand, one hundred eighty-two West Virginians are on this wall, and all of us West Virginians are certainly proud of those soldiers," said Vienna resident and former state delegate Roger Conley from a stage set up for the event.

During and after the war, those who served in it were given "little respect," he said.

"What they did deserve was our sincere thanks," Conley said. "To say thank you is such a small token, but that's what we can do today."

Tammie Ferguson, who worked with Bill Shepherd to organize the local display, noted 265,000 women served in Vietnam, 90% of them volunteer nurses. Eight women's names are etched on the wall: Army Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander, 2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan, 2nd Lt. Carol Ann Drazba, Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham, 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones, 1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane, and 1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski and Air Force Capt. Mary Therese Klinker.

"They embodied selflessness, love and sacrifice," she said. "They died as heroically as the men."

Parkersburg resident Ron Chancellor served as a Navy Seabee in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969.

"You've got to honor your comrades. They're your brothers and more," he said at the park.

Chancellor saw the traveling memorial five years ago in Parkersburg and was sure to come again Thursday.

"You just get that old feeling comes over you," he said. "And you think (it) could've very well been you."

Spencer resident Johnny Wayne Burgess was looking for a familiar name on the wall: his own.

"There's five John Burgesses on this wall, and one of them I do believe is a distant relation to me," he said.

Burgess himself spent 12 years in the Army, serving in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. He said it means a lot to see their time there honored after the negative reception back then.

"It's quite an emotional time when I get around this thing," he said.

The wall will be set up in City Park through noon Sunday.

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