PORT ANGELES — During a chilly evening Saturday, about 70 people gathered to remember the 58,252 names listed on a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall replica and one that wasn’t.
Steve Doty was a Port Angeles native who helped organize the traveling exhibit of the iconic wall and other memorials.
He died July 12 at the age of 64, and was remembered during a ceremony as an Air Force veteran who never served in Vietnam but nonetheless had a never-ending compassion for those who did.
“My dad is with them now,” said his son, Darren Doty of Silverdale.
“There’s a lot of veterans needing help up there and are talking to my dad,” he added.
The memorial replica at 80 percent scale of the original in Washington, D.C., arrived at Olympic Cellars Winery grounds at 255410 U.S. Highway 101, Wednesday and will remain on free display for one more day today.
Also included are exhibits honoring those who died in the War and Terror and other conflicts.
People have come both day and night to visit the wall, said organizers.
Some come to find the name of someone they knew.
Port Angeles residents Mary Johnson, Jim Bailey and Ed Fisher said they came too look for the name of Dean Messersmith, a classmate of theirs killed in Vietnam.
“I’ve always wanted to see it,” Bailey said. “It’s nice to see his name someplace.”
Others came to just reflect.
“I think of the heartbreak for the families that had to subdue all of this,” said Terry Konopaski, a 71-year-old Air Force veteran, while holding back tears.
Like the memorial in Washington, D.C., several notes remembering lost loved ones have been placed along the wall.
“For Doc . . . I was there. Thanks” read one accompanied by a poem honoring military medics.
Another showed a picture of Tommy S. Ball, killed Nov. 30, 1967, at 19, as a five-month-old baby.
“His father was a POW-Korean War,” it read. “He never came home.”
Following the ceremony Saturday, red, white and blue balloons were released into the air while “America the Beautiful” was sung.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays, selected to speak Saturday, talked about the two types of patriotism: one based in reason, the other absent of it.
“I believe this [reason] is at the heart of our patriotism,” he said.
“The traveling memorial is a remarkable example of all that is best about . . . our feeling of patriotic pride.”
Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher will speak today at the final daily ceremony. It begins at 6 p.m.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.