This brought back memories
Joette Parks, a Matteson resident who grew up in Dolton, remembered dancing in the mid-1960s with Anthony Schneller when the two attended Thornridge High School.
“He was dating someone, but his girlfriend let me dance with him,” Parks said Wednesday. “We danced to rock ‘n’ roll. It could have been at a sock hop.”
Schneller enlisted in the Marines and was killed in action Feb. 5, 1968, in South Vietnam.
Parks sought out Schneller’s name Wednesday as the Vietnam Moving Wall exhibit opened in New Lenox. The wall will be on display around the clock until 11 a.m. Sunday at the Tom E. Hartung American Legion Post 1977 at 14414 W. Ford Drive.
Parks and her friend, Patty Schmidt, also found and took photos of the name of Capt. Russell Martin, whom neither have met. But Parks has a Missing in Action bracelet with his name on it.
“I wore this bracelet for so many, many, many years,” she said. “I had to come and see it. I couldn’t get here fast enough.”
There was an opening ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the wall with speeches by post Cmdr. Bill Welch and New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann. The Abraham Lincoln Cemetery Memorial Squad shot off rifles and played taps.
“We had 100-strong volunteers put this together so this community and people from all over the area can come and pay their respect to our heroes who served in Vietnam and who made that ultimate sacrifice,” Baldermann said.
One of the volunteers, Wayne Batkiewicz of New Lenox, served in the Army from 1974-1981. He remarked how special it is.
“Just look at it,” he said. “That’s all you have to do it look at it. The supreme sacrifice. This is the first time I’ve seen it and it’s very humbling.”
The wall is a half size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and has been traveling across the country since 1984. It stands 6 feet high and is roughly the same length as a football field.
It was started and was built by John Devitt was brought to New Lenox in May 2011. Soon after, New Lenox residents Paul and Kim Chen became its caretakers, driving it all over the country.
Paul was in the Navy from 1974 to 1977 and said it wasn’t a job he sought.
“I didn’t find it, it found me,” he said. “We met the drivers 10 years ago and we really clicked. They asked me if I wanted to go with them for a couple of weeks. Unbeknownst to me, that was the beginning of my grooming.”
As a couple, Paul and Kim have been doing this for six years.
Kim said they are gone from May through November. This was the last stop on the 2021 tour after a trip to Tulsa last week.
“We didn’t have a stop in November because of COVID and we had cancellations,” she said. “We thought it was fitting to bring it here for Veterans Day.”
States they have visited this year are Washington, North Dakota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Ohio, Oklahoma and now home, she said.
After this, the display will be stored in Michigan and their next trip is in New Hampshire in May.
Kim said there are 58,318 names on the wall, including Hartung, who was the only New Lenox resident killed in Vietnam. She said there are eight nurses, 33 sets of brothers and three sets of fathers and sons on the wall.
She said it’s gratifying to go from town to town and have these heroes honored.
“People were so unkind to our Vietnam veterans and they never got the welcome home they deserve,” she said. “It’s quite emotional to be able to see these Vietnam veterans get what they deserved. A welcome home.”
Paul said he wants to do this job forever.
“I live and breathe the wall,” he said. “I take care of it. A lot of people ask me if I get lonely driving it all the time. I say ‘no, I don’t get lonesome. I have 58,000 of my buddies in the back. And it have to bring them home.'”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.