Garnered funds enough to bring traveling wall to Fostoria

FOSTORIA — The money required to bring the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall to Fostoria has been secured. So, residents and the surrounding area can save June 26 through 30 as dates for which the three-fifths size replica of the actual Vietnam War memorial wall in Washington, D.C., will be stationed alongside the south parking lot of Fostoria Junior/Senior High School, in the grassy area parallel to H.L. Ford Drive. "With this check, we have the amount satisfied for Florida," said event coordinator David Stultz, motioning to a check for $1,200 presented by Fostoria AMVETS Post 69 earlier this week. "We will not owe them anything else." Stultz was referring to the Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard in Melbourne, Florida, which operates the traveling wall. The wall is scheduled to make 14 stops in 10 states between next week and early November. The AMVETS' check enabled local fundraising to reach the $8,150 mark, for which Stultz signed a contract to bring the wall to Fostoria."I will be mailing (the check) down to them, and anything above that, we're going to use for local expenses, and all the additional (funds) will go toward the Seneca County Honor Bus," Stultz said. The Seneca County Honor Bus periodically hosts free weekend bus trips to Washington, D.C., for veterans. "I'm not sure, exactly, what our local expenses are yet," Stultz said. "We don't have all of those amounts set; we don't know what it's going to cost us yet for, like, porta-potties and incidental things. But anything above and beyond covering any expenses here goes directly to the honor bus." All of Fostoria's veterans organizations were involved in fundraising. Earl Foust Post 73 of the American Legion obtained a $3,500 Greater Fostoria Community Foundation grant for the cause. In addition to AMVETS' $1,200, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 440 chipped in $1,000, with the possibility of more being contributed, chapter President David Young said. "It's come along quite nicely, I think," Stultz said. "The date's getting sooner and sooner, but from this point going forward, we're in the black. So, anything else will be used for a donation to the honor bus." Stultz said he hopes contributions will be able to fund the better part of a trip to Washington, which costs in the ballpark of $28,000.Young and Ralph Koerper, judge advocate of the local AMVETS, pointed out that the wall's stay in Fostoria can serve as an educational experience for local citizens, with it having other effects on people individually. "This is the 50-year anniversary of the end of (the Vietnam War)," said Young, an Army veteran of the war. "So, this is special for all of us veterans to see the (57,939) names on the wall."Koerper also served in the Army during the Vietnam War. "I've been involved in eight or nine of these," he said of stops the wall has made. "It's educationaL, and it gives you a chance to heal. I've got seven or eight (associates') names on that wall. Every one I've ever been involved in has really been successful. Me, it's just more of the healing process. It's 54 or 55 years ago I was (in Vietnam). So, it's the educational purpose, and they don't call it the 'Healing Wall' for nothing. That's what it basically amounts to." Jim Rimar, commander of the local AMVETS post, said he's pleased that public sentiment toward American veterans has grown far more favorable than when the nation was involved in what was a largely unpopular war in Vietnam. He said the wall coming to Fostoria provides a "great opportunity" for people to express respect for veterans. "You can't welcome them home, but you can say thank you," he said. "You sure as heck can say thank you. And being the 50th anniversary of the end, I think, is another thing that we can't emphasize enough because so many of the soldiers — just like the World War II and Korean (war) veterans, who are really thinned out — we can see it in our membership alone that Vietnam veterans, especially because of Agent Orange and all the different chemical things that were spread upon the soldiers over there, we're losing them faster and faster and faster. ... It's great that we're able to bring (the wall) on the 50th anniversary. "I just feel — to this very day, I get choked up over the fact that when we went to travel to the airport, we were told not to even wear your uniform when you were traveling. I can remember that time, before I left Fort Knox (U.S. Army base in Kentucky), they said, 'Change clothes here.'"