Visitors pay tribute at Vietnam War memorial on LI

After enduring the death of a friend in one of the Vietnam War's fiercest battles, Eric Wood returned home and tried to put the war's anguish behind him - settling in Huntington and building a career as a psychotherapist.

But on Thursday, during a visit to a park in Huntington Station, grief he had kept bottled inside for 43 years gushed anew. He knelt sobbing before a long, gray wall, his fingers stretched to a name - William R. Petersen - etched on its surface.

"He had been walking point when we were ambushed," Wood, 64, said later, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes as he walked from the wall. "This is a very powerful thing to experience."

Traveling replicas

The wall that Wood visited is a traveling three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and will be on display in Huntington Station through Sunday. It moves to West Islip next weekend.

Though the installation did not officially open until Friday, handfuls of people have been seeking names on its smoke-colored surface since it arrived Tuesday.

Mary Figalora, 67, of West Islip, came to spend a few moments near the name of her brother, Army Pfc. Jose Antonio Graniela Jr. He perished in a fellow soldier's arms, their unit was later overrun, and Graniela's body was never recovered.

Figalora said their mother, Josephine Graniela, visited the memorial in Washington years ago. She said she is thankful for the traveling installation because, at 91 and frail, her mother is not likely to visit the memorial in Washington again. Instead, she plans to visit the installation next weekend in West Islip.

"It was hard for us to have closure, because they never found his body," Figalora said. "But this at least brings a sense of peace, being here and knowing my mom will at least see his name on the wall again."

Unveiled in November 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial situated in Washington is etched with the names of 58,267 Americans listed as killed or missing in action during the war.

Can help with grief

Elysa Lebron, clinical coordinator for the Rosen Family Wellness Center in Manhasset, said visiting such memorials can help veterans unburden themselves of long-repressed grief.

But Lebron, whose center provides psychotherapy for GIs returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, suggested that veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder should consider bringing someone they could talk to should their visit feel overwhelming.

"Going to a cemetery, going to a memorial wall can be incredibly therapeutic," she said.

Traveling replicas of the Vietnam Memorial wall date back to 1984, when San Jose native John Devitt, a Vietnam War helicopter gunner who was inspired by a visit to the original, built "The Moving Wall," a half-scale Plexiglas version. The replica displayed in Huntington Station is the work of the Dignity Memorial chain of funeral homes.

Joe Gentile, 64, who served in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division, volunteered to share round-the-clock shifts guarding the monument in Huntington Station.

The East Setauket retiree said he struggled with the death of Pfc. Dennis W. Fisher, a Texan who was killed a few feet from him during a midnight attack just after Christmas in 1968.

"For a long time I never talked about it, never talked about it to anyone," Gentile said. He only joined the Vietnam Veterans of America this year.

"We all suffered a lot of the same things after we came back, the nightmares, waking up soaked in sweat," Gentile said. "Every Vietnam veteran has someone he knows on that wall."

If you want to see the wall
 

The Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall is at Peter Nelson Park on Oakwood Road in Huntington.

Hours: The wall opened at 9 a.m. Friday and will remain available for viewing until 4 p.m. Sunday.

Schedule of events: Visit the Town of Huntington website and click on the link under featured  resources “Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall”  or go to town.huntington.ny.us/permit_pics/1067.pdf
 

Next: It will stop next in West Islip Oct. 8-10, where it will be displayed at Higbie Lane and Montauk Highway.