Team tours country with The Wall replica for Vietnam vets

By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff

7/23/2009

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Debbie Frederick and Richard Lyons are more than just drivers pulling a load from point A to point B. They are promoters and proud, almost like parents, of The Wall That Heals (TWTH).

They both beam with pride when talking about it and even though The Trucker tried to get them to talk about their own careers, the topic always returned quickly to TWTH which is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall) in Washington, D.C.

The traveling exhibit enables many thousands of Americans to have the educational, emotional, and healing experience of The Wall in their own communities.

The couple heard that there was a search on for new drivers for TWTH after a friend told them they’d heard it on XM Radio.

“We sent in the only hand written resume,” Frederick said.

“We got the job because of skills, knowledge and enthusiasm,” Lyons said.

“It’s such an honor for me to do this,” Lyons added. “It’s all I want to do now. And get it to as many people and places that I can take it. People get healing when they touch their friend’s name on the wall. It’s a way to bear witness to those names; they still live. The trailer is also a museum with some things people have left at the wall in D.C.”

The traveling exhibit allows many thousands of veterans who have been unable to cope with the prospect of “facing The Wall” to find the strength and courage to do so within their own communities. Frederick explained that sometimes veterans come at night when they need a bit of “liquid courage” to help them go to TWTH.

“For people that can’t go to Washington because of health or emotions; that’s what’s important to let them heal,” Lyons said.

Communities request the replica and it takes about a year after they ask to get TWTH to a particular site. When The Trucker met with Lyons and Frederick at a central Arkansas truck stop, they were heading to Roswell, N.M. where they were to set up for the Fourth of July weekend.

Sometimes when they get to town with the replica wall they have motorcycle escorts reaching 500-600 bikes. It takes 15 to 20 people to set it up and tear it down, but once it’s in position TWTH is available 24 hours a day.

Volunteers sit at computers in a room of the trailer, which also has doors that open up to allow viewers to see a museum, including things that have been left at The Wall in Washington. These volunteers are able to look up names of veterans and tell exactly where that serviceman’s name appears on the one-half scale of The Wall.

The Trucker was unable to see TWTH set up because of the time and space needed to do that, but as Lyons promised when he said, “I’ll open the truck for anybody that wants me to,” he opened some of the doors for us so that we could see the museum.

“When we set up the wall, it’s sacred ground,” Lyons said. “We don’t allow any pets, loud music, food, or drink. It must remain quiet. It’s sacred ground.”

Frederick and Lyons’ first visit to The Wall in Washington was emotional for both of them. Summoning the courage, and with Frederick at his side, Lyons was able to confront his memories and pay his respects to his fallen brethren, according to information provided by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. However, when he walked away from The Wall, he felt as though he were leaving them again, like he did decades ago in Vietnam. Now, as the site manager for TWTH, Lyons remains with his fallen comrades, as he and his wife escort the names to communities across the country and bring them home.

Lyons and Frederick are paid a salary based on touring with TWTH 10 months out of the year, but they want to expand that to a full year. They serve as the third team in charge of the replica in its 13 years of existence.

“When I die, I want to die doing this,” Lyons said. “This is my last duty station. I call it the last fire base.”

Lyons’ dad was a trucker, and Lyons himself was a local trucker before hitting the road.

“My dad taught me to drive a truck when I was 13 or 14,” Lyons said. “I grew up in the Everglades. I already knew the jungle when I went to Vietnam.”

Lyons served four tours in Vietnam in the Marine Corps, 1964-1968. After serving in the war as a sniper, Lyons returned to the United States and after taking a little time to settle down and get his head on straight, became a trucker where he says he found freedom on the road.

Frederick, who was born and raised in southern New York, got into trucking after meeting Lyons. She lived at Fort Benning, Ga., for five years where she was active in troop support before leaving for truck driving school. It was during her truck driver training that she met her husband to be eight years ago.

“I always loved driving and trucking seemed like the thing to do,” Frederick said. “I wanted to see the world and so far I’ve seen a lot of cows.”

Before driving a truck, Frederick did “all kinds of stuff — mostly driving vans, buses. I had moved to Macon, Ga., and two weeks later I was delivering pizza” in a strange town. “I’m the truck navigator. I started trucking when I met Richard. I was at school at CR England and was having trouble with the hazmat part. He helped me out and we’ve been together since.”

The couple is in a common-law marriage as neither of them wanted to go the conventional route again. They live in and out of the truck after having moved out of their home and having sold or stored their stuff and she gave her pickup truck to her son. Joining the couple is a Jack Russell-bulldog mix named Ellie. She’s four years old and the most photographed of the bunch, they said.

When they take TWTH to various towns the people there put them up in a hotel.

Frederick said that response is overwhelmingly positive, although one person asked why there has to be a wall. “To honor those who served,” she answered. “We aren’t remembering The Wall, we’re remembering those who served.”

Lyons said there are other replica walls traveling around the country, but theirs is the only one associated with The Wall in Washington, and the only one with a museum that carries things left at The Wall.

Lyons lost half of one foot and half of one shoulder while fighting in Vietnam and recently was diagnosed with “Agent Orange” which causes him breathing problems and makes his eyes water.

“I stepped on a booby trap and lost half my foot while down injured,” Lyon said. “While down I took another shot from a shooter with a gun” into my shoulder.

Lyons ended up at Great Lakes Naval Hospital where he spent the next seven months. There he said he was treated well. Lyons can’t walk too well without boots on, he said, but he’s gained almost full use of his shoulder.

TWTH is scheduled to visit more than 20 communities throughout the U.S. this year. Since its dedication in 1996, TWTH has visited more than 300 locations around the country, spreading the memorials legacy with millions.

In 1979, Jan Scruggs conceived the idea of building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington as a tribute to all who served during the longest war in American history. Today, the memorial he founded is the most visited memorial in Washington.

For more information about TWTH, contact the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at (202) 393-0090, e-mail vvmf@vvmf.org, or visit wmf.org.

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barbkampbell@thetrucker.com, or visit www.beaglebirdpress.com to order a copy of her book, Living Life Inside Out.

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