AS RAMONA RATERMAN LEFT the black granite panel engraved with her brother’s name, she said it felt as though she left a part of her heart behind.
Just outside the Weber Point Event Center in Stockton, Raterman and her family moved through the grassy plaza, a nearly 300-foot long mobile memorial set-up to memorialize the 58,000 people who were killed or missing in action in the Vietnam War.
Her brother, Gale W. Butcher, just one year older than her, had died serving as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, she said.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Raterman, just a few steps from the panel honoring her brother, someone she remembers following everywhere. “But it’s good to know that he’s up there. [That] somebody remembers him.”
During the wall’s brief stop in Stockton this past week, small crowds made their way to Stockton’s downtown waterfront to pay respects to the names etched into the dark panels, which are meant to replicate the granite slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Appropriately known as “The Moving Wall,” the exhibit also gives a chance to show the name of San Joaquin County’s own fallen service members — 86 in total, according to a digital version of the memorial. Their names were read aloud during a Saturday morning ceremony, with Vietnam War veteran George Jacque ringing a bell after each name.
“Not present, and not forgotten” Jacque said to conclude the ceremony.
For some the memorial — making its fifth appearance in Stockton, but the first since 2019 — is a way to come and pay respect, said Jerry “Doc” Spulecki, a volunteer guide with the exhibit whose nickname comes from his time as a combat medic during the Vietnam conflict.
Spulecki, who has volunteered with the memorial for nearly its whole existence, has noticed fewer visitors, not just in Stockton but in other cities. With only a few veterans from his generation left, others, he believes are likely “tired of it,” especially given the rising U.S. war against Iran.
“I got home 59 years ago, four days ago — May 10,” Spulecki said. “That’s almost six decades. Plus, how many of us do you think are around?”
Reciting every name
After Saturday’s ceremony, once most of the crowd had dispersed, a small group — mostly women — waited for their turn to read the names of fallen service members. Their voices echoed throughout the plaza, as volunteers took turns reciting the names in 20-minute shifts.
Reading the names is an honor, said Donna Shane, the coordinator for the volunteers. Many of them, she said, tear up as they read. According to Shane, organizers were on track to recite all 58,000 names on the memorial — from across the U.S. — by Sunday afternoon.
Shane said her friend, Michael Hill, is also among the names inscribed on the wall. Reciting the names now, she said, is a way to make up for how veterans like Hill were “snubbed” when they returned home from the Vietnam War.
“When they came home, they didn’t get a good welcoming,” she said. “So we need to honor them, and keep them in our minds, and this is how we do it.”
For those who may have missed the Moving Wall on its Stockton visit and wish to view it, it is currently on display in Coulterville at the Banderitas All Veterans Memorial Park through Tuesday, May 26.
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.
