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Volunteers Randy Chapman, left, and Ken Legere, both of Sanford, slide a panel into place while assembling The Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in Sanford in 2023. The wall is traveling to Farmington next week for its only appearance in Maine this year. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

FARMINGTON — A traveling memorial inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 service members who either died or went missing in action while serving the United States in the Vietnam War will be escorted Tuesday into Farmington for services and display over the long July 4 weekend.

The Wall That Heals is a three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that will be set up on Wednesday, July 2, in the field near the Narrow Gauge Cinema complex at 123 Narrow Gauge Square, off Front Street.

An escort of motorcycles accompanying the wall will be led by Farmington police Chief Kenneth Charles and Rose Dyke, the sister of John Henry Ralph Brooks of Bryant Pond.

Brooks was an U.S. Army staff sergeant when he went missing in action during the war. His date of casualty is May 13, 1969, according to event organizer Jennifer Bowser of Farmington, a U.S. Navy veteran and the adjutant of American Legion District 4, who is also a member of the local American Legion Post 28.

A full schedule of events involving the wall will take place beginning at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, July 3. Retired U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills of the 82nd Airborne will be introduced at that time and will speak at 5 p.m. to those gathered.

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Organizers have been working on having the wall come to Farmington for a year. Quilters belonging to the Maine Mountain Quilters group in the Farmington area and to the Stitchers in the Snow group in the Kingfield area have been busy making multiple Quilts of Valor to be presented to 15 service members at noon on Friday, July 4.

“I had seen the wall in other towns,” Bowser said. She had wondered what it would take to bring the wall to Farmington.

“It took me a year,” she said. She wanted Vietnam War veterans to be recognized. She formed a committee and volunteers joined with no hesitation, she said,  and the plan was set into action.

The wall has made appearances in Maine before, including in Lewiston and Gardiner, but this will be its only appearance in Maine this year.

The wall honors more than 3 million Americans who served in the military during the war.

The traveling version of the wall is 375 feet long and is transported from community to community via a 53-foot trailer, said April Mulherin, a spokesperson for the University of Maine at Farmington, which partnered with the American Legion on the project.

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When parked, the trailer opens up to showcase a variety of exhibits, allowing it to serve as a mobile education center that tells the story of the Vietnam War, Mulherin wrote in a news release.

Bowser said the wall includes 340 names of Maine military members who served in the war; 10 of those are from Franklin County.

More than 48,000 Mainers served in the Vietnam War.

The wall will be escorted on U.S. Route 2 from Rumford to Mexico and then to Farmington, she said. The motorcade will start at 1 p.m. from Premium Wood Products in Rumford.

Bowser said members of the public on motorcycles can join the escort.

“We really need to honor these Vietnam veterans. Like World War II veterans, they are dying off,” she said.

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The goal of the wall coming to Farmington is to “provide a healing experience for veterans and their families. If this helps one person heal, that is what this is all about,” Bowser is quoted as saying in Mulherin’s statement.

Priscilla Kimble of Livermore will sing the national anthem at 8 a.m. on each day except for July 3, when she will sing it at 9:10 p.m. Taps will also be played at dusk on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

The closing ceremony of the wall will be held at 12:30 on Sunday, July 6. The wall will close at 2 p.m.

Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help with event. Call 207-778-9371, email post28farmingtonmaine@gmail.com or go to Facebook “Wall That Heals.”

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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