KINGWOOD, W.Va. (WBOY) — The West Virginia Vietnam Memorial Mobile Wall is set to stop moving and be retired to a permanent location soon.
For 11 years, the West Virginia Vietnam Memorial Wall has honored 732 names of West Virginians who paid the ultimate price in Vietnam.
The memorial wall has traveled multiple times to all 55 counties in West Virginia, and West Virginia State Council president with Vietnam Veterans of America Dave Simmons said the wall will be retired to a permanent location after May.
“We decided to put it in a permanent home, that will be Nitro, West Virginia,” Simmons said. “We were afraid whoever got this would just put this in storage somewhere, and it don’t need to be in storage, it needs to be shown.”
Simmons said that he enjoyed traveling around the state with the wall, but it was just getting too difficult, year after year, to keep moving around the state.
“I know that it’s a sad occasion for me to give this wall up and come off the road, I’m just not a young kid anymore and life’s taken a toll on me too, but I know if it’s going to go, it’s going to go where future generations can see it,” Simmons said.
The last showing of the memorial wall will be in Hurricane on May 24, then it will make its final stop at its new permanent home inside the Nitro War Museum in Nitro.
There are 15 chapters within the Vietnam Veterans of America throughout the state of West Virginia, and they plan to continue to help veterans with the sales of the wall and trailer.
“The wall is sold, the trailer that was transported was sold, but the money that we get from the wall and from the trailer were going to help veterans. Doesn’t matter if they are service-connected or not, if they need a ramp, bathroom, whatever they need, we are still here to help them,” Simmons said.
