Veterans aim to build Vietnam wall replica in Angel Fire
Group raising funds to erect structure near Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park
When U.S. Army veteran and Santa Fe resident Eddie Romero visited Washington, D.C., to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the mid-1980s, he became so emotional at the sight of the wall, he said, he had to stand back and take it in
from a distance.
The stark, black granite structure bears the names of more than 58,000 Americans who perished in the war, including 398 from New Mexico; among them are 17 from Santa Fe.
Romero knew some of those Santa Feans — such as his childhood pal Pedro “Pete” Delora, who was a classmate at the old Manderfield Elementary School on Canyon Road, and Richard Griego of Tesuque, who was a friend of Romero’s brother. The name Frances Xavier Nava, after whom Nava Elementary School is named, is also on the memorial wall.
“There’s a lot of homeboys on the wall,” Romero said.
He and other members of Vietnam Veterans of America Northern New
Mexico Chapter 996 want to build a half-size replica of the wall and install it near the Vietnam Veterans Memo
rial State Park in Angel Fire, some 90 miles northeast of Santa Fe.
So far, the group has raised about $30,000 of an estimated $300,000 needed to create the 250-foot-long structure, which would be about the size of the traveling Wall That Heals, another tribute to Vietnam veterans.
Unveiled in the mid-1990s, the Wall That Heals has traveled, via truck, to a number of cities around the country, including Santa Fe in 2014.
Angel Fire is the perfect location for the new memorial, Romero said, because “it is a healing place for Vietnam veterans and their families.”
On Wednesday, leaders of Chapter 996 and officials from the state Department of Veterans Services signed an agreement to designate a place at or near the Angel Fire memorial to place the wall after it is built.
Edward Mendez, director of the Benefits Division of the Department of Veteran Services, said the agreement calls for the department to provide “an honorable spot for the wall” at either the veterans memorial in Angel Fire or a state veterans cemetery being built nearby.
The cemetery is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 — unless weather challenges delay it, Mendez said.
The state agency would be responsible for maintaining the structure after its installation, he added.
Jan Scruggs, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, came up with the idea for building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington after seeing the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, which deals with the trauma Vietnam vets experienced during and after the conflict. He founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which raised about $9 million in private, corporate, foundation and union money.
After the design — by artist Maya Lin — was chosen and the project was completed, it was dedicated over Veterans Day weekend in 1982. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial attracts millions of visitors each year.
Romero said he’d like to see the replica installed in Angel Fire by mid-2021. Much depends on the chapter’s success in raising money, he said.
“I think this is the perfect way to educate New Mexico communities on the Vietnam War,” he said.
“What you see on the wall is the price of freedom,” he added. “I know that sounds like a cliché, but freedom isn’t free. Visiting the wall can raise lots of questions. We lost so many kids in that war, and this [wall] could start a conversation about that.”