Street Survivors…the Upstate of South Carolina recently hosted the only South Carolina visit of the Wall That Heals, at the Spartanburg Business Airport from Friday November 10-12th. The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Fund (VMMF) has provided this mobile three-quarter scale version of the Vietnam Memorial Wall and education center, for the past 28 years. This traveling exhibit honors the more than three million Americans that served in our armed forces during Vietnam, along with the 58,281 men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation.

I visited the Wall That Heals on Friday night, the first night it was open, and it was cold and windy, but the place was packed with visitors across several different generations. It was humbling to see families attend together and to see the emotions on full display. Flags and personal mementos were left under the names of loved ones engraved on the black granite wall. 

Several veterans were seen with paper and pencil to make a rubbing of the name of their lost teammate. Oftentimes that veteran has dealt with the guilt of returning home after the war, asking why they survived when their friend did not. These are some of the scars that a veteran carries home after a war, that are not visible externally. These scars are real, and they are painful and are part of the reason we still have 22 veteran suicides taking place every day in this country!

I stopped at one of the panels in the center of the wall to place my hand on the names and say a short prayer for those incredible lives we lost 9,000 miles from South Carolina, and the families they left behind. As I continued to walk along the wall, a lady and her young daughter walked up to me to thank me for my service, other veterans offered a salute and a smile from a distance, and then a reporter from Channel 4 News walked up and asked if he could interview me about what the Wall means to me. I agreed. The eleven o’clock news Friday night featured the wall and short excerpts from several veterans including mine. The theme was the same, respect and appreciation for those that served, prisoners of war and those killed in action.

The Healing Wall is 375 feet long, 7.5 ft tall and consists of 140 numbered panels made out of synthetic black granite. It travels on average 13,000 miles every year on a 53 ft tractor trailer that transforms into the mobile education center. The Wall of Faces is part of the education center and features pictures from the families of those on the wall.

During it’s many travels, the wall is escorted by local veteran’s groups and other volunteers. Michelle Holcomb, the Director of American Leaders Riders here in Spartanburg escorted the Wall on her trike along with dozens of other motorcycles and vehicles. Many of them volunteered to help set up the wall and even stayed all night guarding the wall from vandals and anarchists. 

The Wall That Heals is aptly named, as it gives veteran’s families across the country an opportunity to meet with other family members mourning the loss of their veteran. 

If you’d like to support this very worthy cause, you can ‘buy a mile’ by visiting  https://www.vvmf.org/buyamile/.

Stay safe out there Street Survivors!

Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we are all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we will be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. 

God Bless America!