BLYN — Here, pain heals.
Steve Doty has seen it happen, in dozens of towns, beneath the thousands of names on the aluminum wall.
Doty, a U.S. Air Force veteran who grew up in Port Angeles, drives around the country installing the American Veterans Traveling Tribute, a replica of the Washington, D.C., Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
He and volunteer crews set up the wall for four days at each location.
The 378-foot-wide wall is stretching across the parking lot next to the 7 Cedars Casino at 270756 U.S. Highway 101.
It will be there through Sunday.
This is the second time the wall has come to the casino.
In July 2004, about a thousand people a day came to see it, said casino spokeswoman Judy Walz.
Doty expects at least that number this time.
Last week some 20,000 visited the wall in Mankato, Minn., just before he drove it to the Peninsula. And 60,000 saw it in New Philadelphia, Ohio, just before that.
“We take the wall around for those who can’t go to Washington, D.C., and those who won’t go,” said Doty, 59.
He understands that some may not want to face the more than 58,000 names of combatants killed or missing in action during the 20-year war in Vietnam.
It hurts to look up at those panels of small print.
But “addressing the emotion,” he said, “is part of the healing. And we’re there for people. There are a lot of hugs.”
Doty has seen people cry while reading the wall, even when it didn’t bear the name of a loved one.
“A lot of people wonder: Why do I feel this way?” he said.
It may be because there are so many names.
