Photo Courtesy of the Fort Worth Star Telegram - Donna Bagby
Caption Reads: "David O. Chung cleans the Vietnam Women's Memorial yesterday morning
in preparation for a dedication ceremony at North East Mall in Hurst.
The 6-foot bronze
statue, which is en route to Washington, D.C., was on display for one day."
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM - Friday, September 3, 1993
By Karen Auge
HURST -- Until she walked up and hugged her yesterday, Gail Watson didn't know Patricia Reichman.
But when Watson saw the other woman, standing on a steamy patch of blacktop outside North East Mall, looking up at the extraordinary cargo inside a Federal Express panel truck, she knew what the stranger was feeling: "I just saw her crying. That was enough," said Watson, a former Army nurse.
All day yesterday, the Vietnam Women's Memorial did that to people. Some came in camouflage outfits, others in wheelchairs. Some had been Dillard's bound when the spectacle in the parking lot distracted them. Others, such as Watson, are veterans who drove miles to see the memorial. Some came bearing scars from the war. Others came out of passing curiosity. Together they formed a steady trickle of visitors to the memorial.
One bronze figure in the 6-foot work cradles a wounded soldier in her arms. A second, gazes at the sky as if asking for help -- from heaven or from an evacuation helicopter. And a third woman kneels, as if praying.
The memorial is the culmination of 10 years' effort to create a permanent artwork that pays tribute to the estimated 265,000 women who were part of the Vietnam military effort. The statute featuring the three figures was created by New Mexico sculptor Glenna Goodacre.
"She did a beautiful job of capturing the feeling," Watson said. Pointing to the figure of the nurse holding the soldier, she said" The first thing I noticed is the face on that nurse. ....You can see the compassion, the caring, maybe a little desperation."
Watson, who spent a year at the 29th Evac hospital south of the Mekong Delta, got teary herself when she first laid eyes on the life-size bronze memorial to the thousands of women who, like her, served in the Vietnam War.
But a few minutes later, the Mesquite resident was composed and ready to comfort Reichman, whose husband spent 21 years in the Navy and did a tour in Vietnam.
"It's fabulous. Beautiful," Reichman said in a quivering voice. "And it's about time the ladies got some recognition."
Dolores Casilio of North Richland Hills said that none of her family or friends served in Vietnam. But when her daughter, Daniele, wanted to see the memorial, she came along. "I read about it, and I just thought it was interesting that women in the military are finally getting recognition," Dolores Casilio said.
If the day-long display of the memorial had a theme, that was it: It's about time.
"This memorial, the same as the wall, is so long overdue," said Bill Goshen, a Ranger in Vietnam from 1968-69, as he closed a noon ceremony dedicating the memorial. "The wall" is the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.
At noon, about 200 people braved scorching metal bleachers to attend the ceremony, at which the mayors of Hurst, Euless and Bedford, and state Rep. Carolyn Park and a handful of veterans -- both men and women -- paid tribute. Andy they applauded the creation of a memorial to those women.
The memorial, the brainchild of former Army nurse Diane Carlson Evans, is traveling the nation from New Mexico, where Goodacre crafted it, to its permanent home in Washington. Its 12-hour display yesterday followed stays in Austin, El Paso and Lubbock.
As they gazed up at the bronze figures inside the truck, some passers-by clicked their cameras and some dropped dollars or quarters into the clear plastic collection bin. Someone laid a bouquet of roses at the statue's base. The 11th Armored Cavalry Division sent a wreath of red, white and blue carnations that bore a ribbon inscribed, "Thanks ladies."
Some of those who visited yesterday stopped by Judy Helein's table outside the mall and bought a beige and brown T-shirt featuring reproductions of the memorial. Helein, who is neither a nurse nor a veteran, said the turnout in Hurst was impressive, especially given the sticky heat of the parking lot.
Helein has seen plenty of crowds in the past week. An employee of the American Association of Retired Persons, she's spending her summer vacation touring with the memorial, selling T-shirts and collecting donations to help pay the $3 million cost of constructing and maintaining it.
When its nationwide tour ends and the memorial comes to rest in Washington in the fall, it will sit alongside the wall, the memorial to the 58,000 Americans who died in the Vietnam War.
When the women's memorial is dedicated Nov. 11, Watson plans to be there. Together, the wall and the women's memorial should send a strong message, she said.
"Let's not ever need to have another memorial wall."
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TAPS
"Gail Watson died Thursday, February 1, 1996, in Dallas, Texas, after a long, brave battle with cancer. Gail served in the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of captain. She was stationed both in Japan and Vietnam.
"Gail had a long history of serving the veterans community in Texas. She was a readjustment counselor at the Dallas Vet Center, focusing her energies on women veterans and Vietnam spouses. Her husband, Danny, also a Vietnam veteran, died several years ago. Gail and her husband met in Vietnam and married while still in the service. When they settled in Dallas, Gail took a job as professor of nursing education at Texas Women's University-Dallas Campus.
"Gail was an active member of the VVA Chapter 137, Dallas, Texas, having served a term both as chapter president and as delegate to the VVA Texas State Council. She was also very active in Agent Orange research. She conducted her own study among nurses who served in Vietnam.
"Gail touched the hearts and minds of many people in her lifetime. She always had a smile and a kind word, even when she was going through tough times." -- The VVA "Veteran" - March 1996
