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Retired U.S. Marine Rodney Gonsalves, bottom left, directs volunteers Wednesday in setting up The Wall That Heals in the field at the Narrow Gauge Cinema Complex off Front Street in Farmington. The free exhibit features a three-quarter scale of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Donna M. Perry/Staff Writer)

FARMINGTON — Sharon Cullenberg was the last one in her family to talk to her brother, Philip Strout, on a ham radio while he was serving in the Vietnam War.

U.S. Navy veterans Brian Ellis of New Vineyard, left, and Jennifer Bowser, right, stand Wednesday with Sharon Cullenberg of Farmington where The Wall That Heals, a  three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is being erected for the Fourth of July weekend. Ellis and Bowser are co-chairs of the committee that brought the display to Farmington. Cullenberg’s brother, 21-year-old Philip Strout, a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, died when the Blackhawk helicopter he was in was shot down May 23, 1969, in Cambodia. (Donna M. Perry/Staff Writer) 

Randy Gauvin was the oldest of five children when, in 1964, his family got word that his father had died in the war.

Both Farmington residents were volunteering Wednesday at the Narrow Gauge Cinema Complex, where The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was being erected in a nearby field. It will be on display 24 hours a day through 2 p.m. Sunday and is the only showing in Maine this year.

There will be a series of events, including an appearance at 5 p.m. Thursday by retired U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills, who was critically injured by an improvised explosive device during a routine patrol on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Cullenberg, who said she was the water girl Wednesday, said the memory of her brother led her to volunteer.

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“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and where he might be if he survived,” she said. “When I heard the wall was coming, I decided I needed to be involved.”

Gauvin was in the third grade when his father, a 28-year-old HU1B Huey helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, was killed in Vietnam. Gauvin will receive a Gold Star Medal for his father.

The family lived in Caribou at the time. Gauvin’s father was the second person in Maine to be killed in the war, he said. It was a difficult time for the family but they made it through. “We made do,” Gauvin said. “We had a lot of family support.”

Farmington residents Randy Gauvin and Sharon Cullenberg, who lost family members during the Vietnam War, help Wednesday in setting up The Wall That Heals at the Narrow Gauge Cinema Complex off Front Street in Farmington. The three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display for the Fourth of July weekend. (Donna M. Perry/Staff Writer)

For Cullenberg, the memories of her brother are never far away. Shortly after she talked to Strout for the last time, two U.S. Army servicemen came to their house in South Portland to deliver the news to her mother that he was killed when the Blackhawk helicopter he was in was shot down May 23, 1969, in Cambodia.

Her brother was 18 when he was drafted right after high school, and turned 21 about two months before he was killed, she said. He was serving with the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Cullenberg was 19 and living at home when her mother was informed of Philip’s death.

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Her brother had so much training before he went, she said.

“Phil told us before he left, ‘if something happens to me, it is out of my control,'” Cullenberg said.

Her oldest brother was also in the U.S. Army but was based stateside.

“It was very difficult at the time,” she said.

South Portland had lost a couple of servicemen at the time, and those families helped her family get through the death of her brother.

The family learned that Strout and others had captured two enemy soldiers and were loading them onto the helicopter under heavy fire. Each serviceperson had been shot and then the helicopter crashed and the pilot was dead under it. They couldn’t get him out and returned the next day and the helicopter and the body were gone, Cullenberg said.

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“It was tough. A lot of crying. Friends helped me get through it,” she said. “I have to say, he was doing what he felt was right.”

Strout is named on casualty lists as living in Portland because he was born at a hospital there, but the family lived in South Portland. There is a memorial to those lost in the Vietnam War at City Hall in Portland and the South Portland High School, where the children from the family attended.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial features the names of over 58,000 men and women who died or remain missing during the Vietnam War. The names are listed chronologically by date of casualty.

Mike Wells of Wilton, left, sets up lights Wednesday at The Wall That Heals in a field next to Narrow Gauge Cinema Complex off Front Street in Farmington. The three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display for the Fourth of July weekend. (Donna M. Perry/Staff Writer)

She joined the organizing committee to bring the wall to Farmington at the second meeting with Jennifer Bowser of Farmington and Brian Ellis of New Vineyard, co-chairs and U.S. Navy veterans. The display is a partnership with American Legion District 4 and University of Maine at Farmington.

This is an opportunity to bring the community together, said Ellis, who was part of the Operation Enduring Freedom after Sept. 11, 2001.

“It brings an opportunity to bring the community together,” he said. “We have older veterans hear and it gives the younger veterans an opportunity to share” their stories and experiences with each other.

Donna M. Perry is a general assignment reporter who has lived in Livermore Falls for 30 years and has worked for the Sun Journal for 20 years. Before that she was a correspondent for the Livermore Falls...

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