On Saturday afternoon I was able to drive out to the Veterans Home of California in West L.A. to take pictures of “The Wall that Heals,” a Vietnam veterans mobile museum. Having been to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C., I was very curious to see this mobile exhibit honoring the troops that died in the conflict. Driving there put me in a somber mood. I couldn’t help but think of the many families who lost a loved one and whose name is now forever engraved in a memorial wall.
Upon arrival there were a handful of people, at most, reading the names on the traveling wall, looking at the pictures of the young men in uniform before being shipped out; and in some instances reading the letters from troops that filled the exhibit. It was there that I met Pete H. King, a Culver City resident, whose nephew Joseph D. Esparza died in the war. As I stood there with King, listening to him speak about his nephew, everything around me seized to matter for a moment. I forgot how hot the day was; the noise from the UCLA baseball game being played at Jackie Robinson Stadium was tuned out. All I could think was how this young man by the last name of Esparza left one day with the Army and died fighting in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Memorial in D.C. was an experience unlike many. To see the 58,000 names engraved on the wall made me appreciate, even more, the sacrifices made by so many people. However, having met King at “The Wall that Heals” where he shared personal facts about his nephew was as profound as it was moving. A list of 58,000 names became the 58,000 stories of those troops that have never been told. The names on that wall represent a plethora of facts and anecdotes, some shared and others still to be told, about the men, women and countless family members who lost a piece of their soul in Vietnam. We are all blessed by the sacrifices made by the troops. I was lucky enough to meet King that warm-spring Saturday and that he was generous enough to tell me about his nephew, Joseph D. Esparza.