The traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall will be open to the public starting 9 a.m. Friday in Pendel and will be open 24 hours each day until 9 p.m. on Sunday.
The traveling wall, which is a three-fifths scale version of the memorial in Washington D.C., is expected to draw tens of thousands of people into Penndel the Memorial Ball Field on PFC. John Dalola Avenue to honor those Americans who gave their lives during the Vietnam War.
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“It’s a solemn place, but it is also a great place,” said Ed Preston, the chairman of The Wall in Bucks County and the Penndel-Hulmville Memorial Day Parade.
While the site will be open for public all day and night, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. a shuttle service will be available to bus patrons into the borough. The parking and shuttle sites are located at Cairn University and Our Lady of Grace School on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday, Restaurant Depot will also be available for parking. Motorcycles can park at Faust Funeral Home.
An opening ceremony will be held Friday starting at 8:30 a.m. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Rick Kiernan and Captain David Christian, former Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy and former Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick are all slated to speak at the morning event.
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Organizers and volunteers helped set up the wall. They unloaded it from trailers that were escorted to Penndel by police, veterans on motorcycles and local firefighters.
Of the 58,307 names on the wall, 136 of them are names from Bucks County. One hundred thirty three Bucks Countians were killed in action, while three of them remain missing in action. A ceremony on Saturday, July 15th will honor those lost.
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The Vietnam Memorial Wall opens off with a ceremony at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
