'Wall magic' drew site coordinator to career with Wall That Heals
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007
"Wall magic."
It's rare, but it happens.
Wall magic is the result of improbable coincidences created by chance encounters at The Wall That Heals. The Wall is an exact half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on which the name of every soldier who died in Vietnam is engraved. It will be on display around the clock Thursday through Sunday afternoon at the Jeffrey C. Dible Soccer Complex in South Sioux City.
The magic happened for Barbara L. Smith in 1999. She visited the Wall 30 years after her fiance, Bob, was killed in Vietnam. It enabled her to grieve for him for the first time. The experience was so powerful that Smith told site coordinators John and Linda Anderson she wanted their job. Six years later, she had it.
Smith, who holds a master's degree in home economics, was teaching college and working for the Extension Service in New York. But after her experience at The Wall, she quit her job, got a commercial driver's license and worked as a long-haul trucker for three years, biding her time until the Andersons called to say they were retiring and the job was open.
Now on her third annual tour with The Wall, Smith drives the display across the country to visit about 24 communities each year. This afternoon, Smith, along with co-site manager Cary Dees, will bring The Wall to South Sioux City.
Smith said in an earlier interview from Tennessee that she has seen "Wall magic" just four times in her three years. Here's how her own magical moment unfolded.
Smith had, of course, attended her fiance's funeral. But no one ever told her how Bob died. Was it sudden? Was he in pain? Was someone with him? The questions haunted her even after she married a Vietnam veteran, had two children and divorced after 10 years.
"I called the Department of Defense, everybody I could think of, and never got any help at all, " Smith recalled recently.
A `Blue Ghost!'
So, in 1999, Smith drove to Mansfield, Penn., where she made her life-changing visit to The Wall That Heals. She stopped at one of The Wall's two computers to ask for help in finding Bob's name on The Wall.
"I gave the guy Bob's name, and he jumped up shouting, `He was a Blue Ghost!'" Smith recalled. The Blue Ghosts are a unit of the Air Cavalry, a helicopter group. Bob had been a Blue Ghost pilot.
"The guy" was site manager John Anderson, also a Blue Ghost. He had served in Vietnam with Bob, leaving just a month before Bob died.
"We found you!" he exclaimed, explaining that a lot of Blue Ghosts had wondered what had become of her.
"This `Wall magic' moment changed my life," Smith said. "(John) hooked me up with the pilot Bob was flying with that day, the people who cared about him, who knew him. I got e-mails from all over the country."
She said the fact that she had sent Bob a box of candies and cookies every week while he was in Vietnam probably made it easy for his buddies to remember her. "They knew he had a Barbara in his life."
Smith said it's mostly local volunteers who experience "Wall magic," since they run the computers now. A couple of weeks ago, Smith said, a man was asking where on The Wall to find a former fraternity brother's name when an elderly couple came up to the other computer window and asked for the same name; the soldier had been their neighbor. The three stood in the information center and shared stories about him for quite a while.
Another time, the children of a Vietnam veteran who volunteered at The Wall thanked Smith for giving them their dad back. The man had functioned in life but seemed to have had a heavy load lifted after four days of telling visitors about his war experiences; he had never talked to anyone about it before.
`Stuff happens'
The truly magical moments are rare, but "emotional stuff" happens all the time, Smith said, and not just at night. But often it is the Vietnam veterans who come very late at night or early in the morning, concerned they may get emotional and not wanting people to see them.
"And The Wall is beautiful at night," Smith said. Many students who have visited with their classes return with their parents or grandparents at night. "It could be Grandpa served in the Army but never talked about it.
"I just have a real passion for it," Smith said, "for helping people who have been where I was. And for making the experience available to everyone, whether it's to young children or Gold Star moms."
It's rare, but it happens.
Wall magic is the result of improbable coincidences created by chance encounters at The Wall That Heals. The Wall is an exact half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on which the name of every soldier who died in Vietnam is engraved. It will be on display around the clock Thursday through Sunday afternoon at the Jeffrey C. Dible Soccer Complex in South Sioux City.
The magic happened for Barbara L. Smith in 1999. She visited the Wall 30 years after her fiance, Bob, was killed in Vietnam. It enabled her to grieve for him for the first time. The experience was so powerful that Smith told site coordinators John and Linda Anderson she wanted their job. Six years later, she had it.
Smith, who holds a master's degree in home economics, was teaching college and working for the Extension Service in New York. But after her experience at The Wall, she quit her job, got a commercial driver's license and worked as a long-haul trucker for three years, biding her time until the Andersons called to say they were retiring and the job was open.
Now on her third annual tour with The Wall, Smith drives the display across the country to visit about 24 communities each year. This afternoon, Smith, along with co-site manager Cary Dees, will bring The Wall to South Sioux City.
Smith said in an earlier interview from Tennessee that she has seen "Wall magic" just four times in her three years. Here's how her own magical moment unfolded.
Smith had, of course, attended her fiance's funeral. But no one ever told her how Bob died. Was it sudden? Was he in pain? Was someone with him? The questions haunted her even after she married a Vietnam veteran, had two children and divorced after 10 years.
"I called the Department of Defense, everybody I could think of, and never got any help at all, " Smith recalled recently.
A `Blue Ghost!'
So, in 1999, Smith drove to Mansfield, Penn., where she made her life-changing visit to The Wall That Heals. She stopped at one of The Wall's two computers to ask for help in finding Bob's name on The Wall.
"I gave the guy Bob's name, and he jumped up shouting, `He was a Blue Ghost!'" Smith recalled. The Blue Ghosts are a unit of the Air Cavalry, a helicopter group. Bob had been a Blue Ghost pilot.
"The guy" was site manager John Anderson, also a Blue Ghost. He had served in Vietnam with Bob, leaving just a month before Bob died.
"We found you!" he exclaimed, explaining that a lot of Blue Ghosts had wondered what had become of her.
"This `Wall magic' moment changed my life," Smith said. "(John) hooked me up with the pilot Bob was flying with that day, the people who cared about him, who knew him. I got e-mails from all over the country."
She said the fact that she had sent Bob a box of candies and cookies every week while he was in Vietnam probably made it easy for his buddies to remember her. "They knew he had a Barbara in his life."
Smith said it's mostly local volunteers who experience "Wall magic," since they run the computers now. A couple of weeks ago, Smith said, a man was asking where on The Wall to find a former fraternity brother's name when an elderly couple came up to the other computer window and asked for the same name; the soldier had been their neighbor. The three stood in the information center and shared stories about him for quite a while.
Another time, the children of a Vietnam veteran who volunteered at The Wall thanked Smith for giving them their dad back. The man had functioned in life but seemed to have had a heavy load lifted after four days of telling visitors about his war experiences; he had never talked to anyone about it before.
`Stuff happens'
The truly magical moments are rare, but "emotional stuff" happens all the time, Smith said, and not just at night. But often it is the Vietnam veterans who come very late at night or early in the morning, concerned they may get emotional and not wanting people to see them.
"And The Wall is beautiful at night," Smith said. Many students who have visited with their classes return with their parents or grandparents at night. "It could be Grandpa served in the Army but never talked about it.
"I just have a real passion for it," Smith said, "for helping people who have been where I was. And for making the experience available to everyone, whether it's to young children or Gold Star moms."
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TODD A. TASTAD wrote on Oct 17, 2007 1:35 AM:
VietVet1971 wrote on Oct 16, 2007 11:41 AM:
JimVeteran wrote on Oct 16, 2007 7:38 AM: