Mobile Vietnam Veterans Memorial Comes To Oak Forest

OAK FOREST, IL — A 375-foot mobile replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will return to Oak Forest this fall. The Wall That Heals will be on display beginning Thursday, Oct. 4, at 158th Street and Lorel Avenue, according to the Oak Forest Veterans Commission, which is sponsoring the event. The memorial will be up until Sunday, Oct. 7.

"This mobile replica really is about taking the names home to communities large or small, to allow people to have the same kind of healing experience to come and show their respect, to remember those 58,000 whose names are on the wall, as well as the 2.7 million Vietnam veterans who served, who returned home," said the president and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the nonprofit organization that built the D.C. memorial in 1982 and the mobile replica in 1996. "It's a chance to look back and pay their respects to those who answered the call of service to their country, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice."

The Wall That Heals was last in the city in 2008. The Moving Wall, an earlier traveling memorial, was in Orland Park in 2015.

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Because the wall will be open around the clock, volunteers are needed as monument guides for various shifts. Anyone interested in helping out can go to the online signup.

The Wall That Heals: The Basics

When: Thursday, Oct. 4, to Sunday, Oct. 7. Volunteer crews will begin taking down the memorial at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Where: 158th Street and Lorel Avenue, Oak Forest

Other Events: A ceremony honoring Vietnam veterans will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at the memorial.

Volunteering: Go to the online signup to offer your help as a guide.

The Wall That Heals, a 375-foot mobile replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Screen shot from video via Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | YouTube)