“As you move across the names, you realize that all of a sudden you come across that one you know,” said Richard Paulsen, who served in Vietnam in 1968.

 The Traveling Vietnam Wall lists the names of 58,253 American servicemen and women who died between 1956 and 1975 was the centerpiece of a Veterans Day commemoration at Cupertion’s Memorial Park Nov. 11.

  “Fortunately I only know one. The year I was in Vietnam our unit was blessed in that we did not lose anyone. Unfortunately my best friend was killed the year before.”

  Paulsen paused briefly.

  “It’s a very moving day.”

  The traveling wall, a portable replica of the permanent exhibit in Washington D.C., was brought to Memorial Park and put on display from Nov. 9 to 13. The park is also home to The Guardians monument, a statue of Cupertino native and Navy Sonar Technician Second Class SEAL Matthew Axelson and Petty Officer Second Class James Suh, both killed in Afghanistan in 2005.

Wet weather threatened to cancel the event, but rain halted minutes before the 11 a.m. start time. Members of the Suh and Axelson families placed flowers at the statue and Axelson’s parents unveiled a boulder to honor Vietnam veterans. City officials and retired military personnel gave speeches to the audience.

  Retired Capt. Stephen Gilmore, U.S. Navy, got to know Axelson and Suh while serving at the Navy special warfare command headquarters.

  “We in Naval special warfare consider this park to be sacred ground,” he said during an address to a crowd of hundreds.

  Col. William Peacock, a Vietnam veteran, followed Capt. Gilmore with a simple speech. He broke the names on the Vietnam wall into smaller groups, such as the 31 sets of brothers killed, or the 1,448 soldiers who died on their last scheduled day of deployment.

  “We touch those names. We don’t see their names; we see their faces. We remember their wives and mothers and fathers, and we feel their pain that they suffered, that these numbers created,” he said.

  Peacock concluded his speech by telling the audience, “There are no noble wars, only noble warriors.”

  This year’s Veterans Day ceremonies gave special attention to Vietnam veterans. Sandra James, former mayor and current president of the Cupertino Veterans Memorial, said she felt this group of veterans had been unfairly treated in the past.

  “When I put my arms around them and say ‘thank you and welcome home,’ they all just start crying because they never got that. They were treated like criminals, and they’ve never been able to be proud of their military service because of that,” she said.

  While most of the day’s events focused on remembering the suffering and loss experienced by veterans and their families, two speakers addressed the contested legacy of the Vietnam War, a conflict in which over 58,000 Americans and at least hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died. Peacock and David Knapp, Cupertino city manager and a retired Capt. of the U.S. Air Force, both said that American involvement in Vietnam contributed to the eventual collapse of communism worldwide.

  Active duty soldiers also came to pay their respects. Iraq veteran Sgt. First Class Hector Villalpondos said that being stationed on the west coast meant he had never had the opportunity to see the Vietnam Wall in Washington. He brought his son Thomas along.

  “I decided to bring him out today and show ‘look, these people have died for serving what they thought was the right thing to do.’ Maybe it’s not for him, but being raised in a military family, my dad served in Vietnam, I just wanted to come out and see this with my own eyes.”

(BRYCE DRUZIN / LA VOZ WEEKLY)