Camp Holloway Discussion Forum - Research Archive - 11/11/00 to 01/21/10

Name Reading Email

I emailed the following today to all the 119th email addresses I have. If you are in touch with anyone you think might be interested in knowing what we are doing, please pass this along:

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I apologize if you are already aware of this, but I wanted to be sure as many 119th veterans as possible know what is happening in Washington DC this Fall.

2007 is the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Wall, in Washington DC. For the anniversary, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is arranging to read aloud all the names on The Wall over the four days before Veterans Day. Starting with a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon through midnight, and then from 5AM through midnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, every name will be read. Details are at http://www.vvmf.org

Some of us in the 119th have gotten together on the Gator 297 web site ( http://www.campholloway.com )and we have decided that to honor and to keep faith with our fallen comrades, we would ensure that a 119th veteran (or family member of the KIA) will be designated to read the names of our own 119th dead. Including the 119th's predecessor unit, the 81st Transportation Company, and early 25th Infantry Division "Shotgun" door gunners, we have been able to identify 63 names on the Memorial, split into 25 distinct groups, who died while with the 119th in Vietnam between 1962 to 1970.

We can use some help with this. If you will be in DC in the days before Veterans Day, or if you live within driving range, come help out with the readings. If you would prefer not to read, come anyway, we would love to see you. There are 2 groups of 119th names on Friday and 7 groups on Saturday that are pretty well covered. But we have 9 groups of names to read on Wednesday, and 7 more groups on Thursday that we could use more readers for. If you have "been meaning" to visit your friends on The Wall and never gotten around to it, come on. We'll go together.

It looks as though most of us will be staying at the Virginian Suites Hotel in Arlington (Rosslyn), VA near the Iwo Jima Memorial. Tom Frankenfield has arranged a Group Rate of $129 if you reference Group Code "VHCM" when you make reservations. We are also trying to arrange for a meeting room at the Virginian Suites so that we have some sort of gathering place or headquarters facility available.

If there is any chance you could help out, please let me know so I can add you to our roster of readers. Email is fine (hosco6ATaolDOTcom) or call my cellphone any time (860-256-XXXX) if you would like more information. If you cannot make it, it would help if you would pass the word to any other 119th vets you may be in touch with. Several of us did this five years ago for the 20th Anniversary of the Memorial and it was an unforgettable experience.

Thanks,
Bob Kilpatrick