This article was submited by Jack L. Morrison. Thank you Jack for this valuable submission.


All -

The Virtual Wall has a new format for the website effective November 11, 2009. Visit it at http://www.virtualwall.org/index.html .

The Virtual Wall is an on-line Vietnam War memorial. The website opened on March 23, 1997 and is run by the not-for-profit organization, www.VirtualWall.org Ltd.

The Virtual Wall originally only had a separate memorial page for each casualty remembered by those requesting the creation of a memorial page.

Effective November 11, every casualty listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall) in Washington D.C. now has a basic memorial page on The Virtual Wall, not just those who had one requested. 

Each basic memorial page contains casualty  (basic and expanded) information and graphics of military unit patches and awards. The Virtual Wall database will continue to accumulate information from relatives or friends of a casualty contributing remembrances, photographs and their own details to The Virtual Wall using the websites free-to-use facilities. For the prior existing memorial pages, the website includes a list of those awarded military honors, the use of photographs in a pictorial index and a search facility. It has enabled thousands of contacts between relatives and military buddies of a casualty. The Virtual Wall is modeled on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Washington, DC, USA, which has the names of over 58,000 American military men.

As soon as The Virtual Wall resumes accepting requests for adding more information to the basic pages, the new memorial pages may contain one or more photographs, remembrances, citations of awards for valor, and a synopsis of the incident that caused the loss of life, the same as the older memorial pages contain. 

For anyone wishing to add a link to their web site (send to any webmaster you know who may be interested), you can now add a link from your web site to lists of Vietnam War casualties from cities or towns in your area.

The state index pages of The Virtual Wall have named anchors for every city and town that had casualties, for example:

http://www.VirtualWall.org/istate/istatco.htm#denver   Denver, CO
http://www.VirtualWall.org/istate/istatde.htm#newcastle  New Castle, DE

All links should begin with http://www.VirtualWall.org/istate/istat   // this link does not go to a page

then the two-letter state abbreviation
then .htm#
then the city of town name, no spaces, all lower case
(We read that some browsers are case-sensitive to named anchors)

Please pass this information to anyone you know who may be interested in seeing the new version of The Virtual Wall and a basic memorial page for their loved one.

Jack Morrison
LinkMaster,
The Virtual Wall.

        

Randall,

Normally I would simply enter a reply on line and will do so again if you wish, but I really would appreciate it if you could send this on to Joe Hogg, if you have his email. I have been trying to reach anyone who could recall the term of "Silver Dagger" Sections that were put up for Illingworth, and particularly the team that stayed on station until they just about ran out of fuel. He siad he was the one we are looking for.

Steve Nicolich ... << MORE >>

Gabby Luna passed away December 1, 2009.

... << MORE >>

For many years, I have been looking for a personal connection to Firebase Illingsworth. Something more than a photo or casual mention in a book. I was looking for a personal account of what occurred on April 1, 1970 so that I had a better understanding of what my brother Roger went through before he was killed. I want to thank Mr. Richards for bringing me just a little bit closer to that connection.

Paul D. McInerny

I am thankful to Paul for his comment. I chose to post it as an entry because it is so powerful. This is an example of the value stories from Vietnam have for other people. Anyone wishing to contribute can do so by sending email to me at this site.
Thank you Paul,
Randall

        

  When the sun came up September 10, 1969, LZ Ike looked much worse than it did when we arrived the evening before.  The first thing I remember seeing was Johnson peeing in the water that ran through the LZ. I thought, Oh my God! I was in that water last night. I saw other guys using the same water to shave. The battalion commander told us that were not leaving until we had gooks piled in the wire all around the berm. ...<< MORE >>

    I came into country at Cam Rahn Bay.  I had been in country for a few days and had been through Cherry School.  On the 9th day of September 1969, my name was called out as being assigned to E, 2/8, 1st Cav Div.  We left for Tay Nihn.  When we got to Tay Nihn we were told where our company headquarters was.  When we got there I thought this is not so bad.  I saw lots of sand bags and plenty of places to take cover.  About the time I decided on what looked like the place I would want to be during an ...<< MORE >>

    We moved in to build Illingsworth during March.  The site was a grassy clearing. We arrived late in the day and started building gun pits for our mortars, hootches for sleeping, and storage for our ammo.  We had our mortars, 105's, our radar unit, a line company, and our battalion headquarters (TOC).  We were told that we could not go to sleep until we had 3 layers of sandbags on our sleeping hootches.  It started raining about sundown.  Filling sand bags became very difficult. Around 11:00 pm we gave up on the sandbags.  I laid down on a cote and placed ...<< MORE >>

    This site exists for you the U.S. Veteran and current soldiers.  You can add your story to this site to help tell the complete story of all our service in the military.  Every event that happened while you were in the military is of interest and can be part of history.  Your story is important.  There are people that you served with who will be glad to know that they did not just dream the episode that you record.  That happened to me.  Twenty-five years after I left Vietnam, I had convinced myself that some of the events I remembered may not have actually happened.  Then, after twenty-five years, one of my military buddies organized a reunion.  I was amazed to hear the stories my friends told that weekend.  Some events that I had not been able to discuss with anyone suddenly became real again, and I knew it was now okay to talk about them.  We now have a reunion every year.  Wow, what a healing process.
    Maybe your writings here will help you renew old aquantances and heal old wounds.  Write all you want.  Come back as often as you have time.  Writing your experiences will help you deal with the memories and will help others to connect the dots.
    Please be aware that anything you write here will be available for others to read.  By posting your story you are giving us permission to reprint your story in varied forms.