WEST HARTFORD -- The wall has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles and Thursday it arrived in West Hartford.
The Global War on Terror Wall of Remembrance is a project that contains the names of soldiers who died fighting the War on Terror, as well as victims who died in terror attacks at home and abroad.
The newly-established Connecticut Friends of Veterans, a volunteer nonprofit to help veterans, helped bring the wall to Connecticut for the weekend. Marine Corps veteran Peter Galgano Jr., who served in Vietnam, was a big part of that. He told FOX 61, "I want to be here for this generation."
Derek Hendershot, the Marine who's driving the wall around the country, said, "It’s about healing our veterans."
The wall was created on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and was supposed to be temporarily on display, but Hendershot convinced its creators to make it a traveling memorial. The goal is to eventually get it within 50 miles of the hometown of each person whose name is on the wall.
Hendershot hopes as many people as possible come to visit the wall and meet veterans. He also hopes veterans come down to get any support they need.
"That’s why it’s emotional, that’s why I go through what we go through, because I can’t bring them back and I’ve got my own survivor’s guilt that I deal with, Hendershot said. "But this right here is a way that we can come together and we’re not forgotten; and I meet veterans all over this country and it’s veterans that help me along this way."
Galgano added that the "wall means so much to all of us."
There are 65 service members' names on the wall who hail from Connecticut One is Marine Lance Cpl. Larry Philippon, a Conard High School grad of 2001 who left college mere weeks into his freshman year to enlist in the weeks after September 11. He died in Iraq in 2005, but his parents, Leesa and Ray, who are veterans themselves, helped organize this event. Another set of parents, Linda and Richard Bixler, also helped bring the wall to West Hartford to honor their son, Marine Cpl. Steven Bixler, a 2003 Suffield High School grad who was killed in Iraq in 2006.
The wall will be in front of West Hartford Town Hall through the evening of Sunday, August 28, and will be on display 24/7. There will also be several events, including an opening ceremony featuring Gold Star moms laying wreaths at 7 p.m. Friday; and a candlelight vigil and reading of all the Connecticut names on Saturday at 8 p.m.
There are about 11,000 names on the wall, and more are added as needed. That covers one side. The other side has a timeline of the War on Terror, which goes back as far as 1983, covering: 1983 Beirut bombings on U.S. military barracks; Gulf War Opeartions Desert Shield and Desert Storm; the Battle of Mogadisu in 1993 in Somalia; Bosnia intervention in the 1990s; USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000; September 11 attacks; War on Terror operations in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Freedom Sentinal); War on Terror operations in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn and Operation Iron Resolve); the Ft. Hood, Texas shooting; the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya; the Boston Marathon bombings; the shooting at the Chattanooga, Tennessee military installations; and the terrorist attack at a health center in San Bernardino.
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