The biggest single age group of casualties in the Vietnam War were 20-year-olds — 14,095 dead.
They came from everywhere from the Canal Zone to the Virgin Islands to the regular 50 U.S. states, but California had the highest number of casualties, 5,573. The biggest number of dead were ranked E-3 — 17,995 dead. The most deaths were in direct combat — 38,572 dead.
There were a total of 58,263 military casualties throughout the war.
All of them are accounted for at the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial currently on display at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino, an effort two years in the making, said Mike Harris member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8956 North Beach, who helped to bring the display here to Grays Harbor, escorted by a column of motorcycle clubs to the resort where it’ll be displayed through Sunday, with a ceremony and blessing taking place at the exhibit at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
“You can see how many bikers it brought and that was on the strength of a phone call,” Harris said. “People can come out here and heal.”
It isn’t the first time the Wall has visited Ocean Shores, Harris said. It was hosted at Quinault Beach Resort’s parking lot before, and the hotel and casino was very helpful in bringing the exhibit here again, Harris said.
“We had the wall here in 2007,” said Harris. “It was kind of a no-brainer.”
A motorcycle convoy, involving seven motorcycle clubs, more than 150 bikers, and an escort from the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office left Hoquiam on Wednesday morning escorting the wall to its destination on the coast, following a lap through Ocean Shores. The North Beach Eagle Riders, who helped fundraise and organize the event, led the procession, Harris said.
“I reached out to one (motorcycle club),” Harris said. “And another one appeared, and another one appeared.”
The work took two years of fundraising to lock down the exhibit’s visit, Harris said. The Texas-based company has several walls that they take all over the country, said Jim Gilliland, the event coordinator and an Army veteran.
“We love it. I love traveling the country, Gilliland said. “It’s a certain group of people that you meet.”
Gilliland said he came to the all-veteran company, American Veterans Traveling Tribute, a few years ago after serving decades as a tank crewman.
“Buddy of mine I served with in the Army called me up and said ‘you want a job?’” Gilliland said. “Three years later, here I am.”
The drive from the company’s headquarters in East Texas was about 2,300 miles, Gilliland said, driving through the Texas panhandle, up to Wyoming, west through Idaho, and out to Ocean Shores.
“It’s gratifying,” said Sam Nation, the post commander of VFW Post 8956 in an interview, expressing his desire that the memorial serve as a unifying influence on the divisive politics of the day.
“For me, I love seeing our community — brothers and sisters with whom we served. It does something to my heart,” Nation said. “That’s what I’ve got out of it personally.”
The wall reproduces the original Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in D.C., with its somber mood and the tens of thousands of names carved into the dark stone. The traveling exhibit also has more, however, with acknowledgment of previous conflicts and the thousands of names of casualties from operations and wars since then, including Afghanistan and Iraq, up to the 2021 bombing at Kabul International Airport during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.
Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World Veterans look at a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial hosted at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino on June 14.
Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World Motorcycle clubs provided an escort for a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from Hoquiam to its destination at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino on June 14.
Seven motorcycle clubs and more than 100 bikers provided an escort for a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from Hoquiam to its destination at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino on June 14. (Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World)
More than 58,000 names from the Vietnam War, and thousands more from subsequent wars, are inscribed in the wall of a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial hosted for a weekend in June at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino. (Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World)
