The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall is making a return to central Pennsylvania, and Centre County residents will need only to make a short drive to Mifflin County to see the tribute.
Vietnam Veterans of American Chapter 791 have arranged to bring the memorial — an 80 percent replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington D.C — to Reedsville Aug. 7-11.
The traveling wall was last in Centre County in 2017 at Innovation Park.
To welcome the memorial to Mifflin County, a parade will be held at 5 p.m. Aug. 7, starting at Red Zone Sports Bar & Grille, 34 Envision Drive in Mifflintown. It will continue through Lewistown to Reedsville, concluding at Reedsville Playground on Honey Creek Road, where the wall will be available for viewing 24 hours a day through Aug. 11.
At 360 feet long, the wall is the largest of four traveling tribute replicas of the original in Washington. More than 58,000 names are memorialized on the wall.
‘It’s going to be an exciting thing to honor our Vietnam vets, which we are very proud to do here in Centre County as well,’ Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Commissioner Michael Pipe noted that the wall’s visit to central Pennsylvania comes on the heels of a 20-mile stretch of Route 192 in Centre County recently being renamed the Central Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway.
