![Visitors pay their respects at the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, which made a tour stop at Jefferson County Airport in Washington state. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/IMG_3602-scaled.jpg?width=2560&height=1920)
Airports are more than economic engines for communities and hubs for transportation. They can also become a stage that can enable healing and education.
That was the case this week at Jefferson County International Airport (0S9) in Washington state. The airport, located approximately 38 nm northwest from Boeing Field in Seattle, as the Cessna flies, played host to The Wall That Heals, a three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
It arrived on Tuesday, September 9, escorted by veterans from the American Legion Post riding motorcycles and driving classic cars as the wall and mobile education center were transported from the center of town to the airport. The crew installed the temporary exhibit on the grass field between the runway and ramp.
The wall is chevron-shaped, measures 375 feet long, and is 7.5 feet high. It is illuminated at night. It bears the names of the 58,281 people—mostly men, although a handful of women were killed in Vietnam, with the majority of them nurses.
![Flowers laid near the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, which made a tour stop at Jefferson County Airport in Washington state. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/IMG_3605.jpg?width=768&height=1024)
A trailer contains a display of items that have been left at the permanent wall, which has been in place in Washington since 1982. Among them have been wistful letters, photographs, and a baseball glove with a heartfelt message about missing the owner.
Inscribed on the plastic panels that make up the wall are the names of individuals who died in action, but also due to circumstances other than combat, including murder, motor vehicle accidents, drowning, animal attacks, etc. while they were in Vietnam.
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During FLYING’s visit, there were families, school groups, and senior adults taking tours. Several of the teens looking at the names remarked they didn’t really learn about Vietnam in school and had lots of questions about it. Others were surprised to learn that someone just a few years older than they are now was fighting a war, having been drafted.
One of the most common questions was about the square shape preceding the name. According to the tour guide, the square meant the person was confirmed dead and their remains returned. If the name had a cross rather than a square, it means the person was killed in Vietnam, but their remains have not been found. If the person’s remains were found, the cross would be converted into a square. If the missing person returns alive (which has not happened to date), the cross would be converted into a circle.
The traveling exhibit was staffed by knowledgeable volunteers, many from local groups, who provided rides to the wall in golf carts for the visitors who were mobility challenged and helped others find specific names on the wall using an app that could look up the person by last name or hometown.
I made the trip to the wall with Jack Schoch, one of my flight students who served in Vietnam as an aircraft controller for the U.S. Navy aboard ship. Schoch was looking for the name of a high school classmate who he had been told was killed in Vietnam.
![Names of the dead on the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, which made a tour stop at Jefferson County Airport in Washington state. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/IMG_3604.jpg?width=1024&height=768)
The visitors were given pieces of paper and pencils to use to make rubbings of the names from the wall. Some people were there to capture the names of those they served with. Others were looking for the names of people they knew from childhood, in particular young men they grew up with or dated who did not live long enough to become husbands or fathers.
Several of the visitors paused to make a rubbing of the name using a piece of paper and pencil the volunteer provided. Other people left flowers or photos and notes to the person they came to remember.
![Many visitors made rubbings of the names of special people they lost to the Vietnam War. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/IMG_3606-Large.jpeg?width=768&height=1024)
The wall was kept illuminated at night, and on Friday evening, September 12, there was a candlelight vigil for the survivors and victims of Agent Orange, an herbicide and defoliant used extensively by the military from 1961 into the 1970s. It has been linked to far-reaching health impacts on people exposed to it.
The Wall That Heals has been traveling the U.S. since 1996. The time at Jefferson County Airport was part of a 30-stop tour.
