(file photo)
SAUGERTIES – Motorcades will escort a traveling scale model replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall into Ulster County today, where it will be temporarily erected in Saugerties Cantine Field, for public display until July 23.
Representatives from the office of Ulster County Executive Michael Hein announced the itinerary and explained details of the events on Tuesday.
One of three privately organized replicas traveling nationally, the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is a three-fifths sized version of the official war memorial located in Washington, DC. The sleek, 300-foot black granite edifice contains 58,318 names of soldiers who died during the Vietnam conflict, between 1955 and 1975.
Hein said the walls travel for those who cannot get to the nation’s capital.
“The goal here is to provide an opportunity for those in our region, who may not be able to get to Washington DC, the ability for people to have this in their community, I think is very important, and from an education perspective, it aligns well with what we’re trying to do, to make people better understand what this has meant, from a 60 year perspective,” Hein said.
Some automobile traffic will be interrupted. Beginning at the New Baltimore rest area on the Thruway, around 10 a.m. Wednesday today, heading southbound, the Wall will exit at Kingston, proceed down Col. Chandler Drive into Midtown area, and head east along Broadway, then north up Route 9W, to the Cantine Field destination in Saugerties, at approximately noon.
Pieces of the memorial replica are scheduled to be off-loaded from trucks and assembled into the display position. Hein said that both private and public resources were donated to pay for the arrangements.
A closed event for Gold Star families takes place at 10 a.m. on Thursday, followed by an official ceremony at 11a.m. The memorial will be open to the public afterward. There will be a Gold Star sticker affixed next to the 42 names on the wall which represent fallen soldiers from Ulster County. A computer terminal helps locate the positions of any other name. The entire operation is free admission to all.
