JUST 12 YEARS AGO, THE REPLICA VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL WALL CAME TO THE NORTH HAVERHILL FAIRGROUNDS FOR FOUR DAYS. LAST WEEK, THE SAME WALL CAME TO TOWNS SOUTH OF HERE, ALSO, FOR FOUR DAYS. I WAS HONORED TO BE PART OF THE ESCORT DETAIL FOR BOTH OF THESE SIMPLE, BLACK WALLS WITH THE NAMES OF MORE THAN 58,000 AMERICANS KILLED FIGHTING THIS WAR.
It was a pleasant, sunny day back in May 2013 when Wayne Fortier and his fellow Vietnam War veterans headed a committee to sponsor a visit of the mobile Vietnam War Memorial to the North Haverhill Fairgrounds.
It was set up there for four days and allowed thousands of war veterans and others to visit the 300-foot-long wall bearing the names of the nearly 59,000 military men and women who died fighting that war that lasted from November 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975.
It was an exhausting time, as people came in droves throughout the four days the wall was available. As it was open 24-hours a day, there was never a quiet moment on the fairgrounds as families, military individuals and groups of all sizes and descriptions came to the fairgrounds to pay their respects to the fallen and also to find their missing buddies’ names after consulting the data base of names and information that was located on the field for the entire time.
On Tuesday morning, June 24, 2025 my Grandson Alex Marvin, a Detective Sergeant with the Newport, NH Police Department picked me up in Piermont and we travelled to Andover, NH where we met up with many other police departments who were in the lead elements that were to escort the truck that was holding the cherished Memorial Wall panels and framing equipment for the exhibition.
For the next hour and one-half, the lead cruisers, 200 motorcycles, associated civilians, and the Claremont Fire Department escorted the two-mile long caravan through small towns along the way, ending our trip at Monadnock Park, where the wall was to be assembled and available for public viewing until Sunday, June 29, 2025.
The escort duty with Sergeant Alex and his friends from area police departments made a colorful, yet somber trip through those towns, as large and small groups and individuals assembled to pay their respects as the long motorized column passed by.
It was much the same back in 2013, when elements of New Hampshire and Vermont State Police, more than 25 fire and police departments and 150 riders on motorcycles escorted the Viet Nam War replica wall from the P& H Truck Stop down to the North Haverhill Fairgrounds, where the wall was to be set up and displayed for the next four days.
The ride to the fairgrounds was long and slow, with not a sound from the crowds along the way. Like the recent escort, American flags were held high as the escort rolled by. Locally, Vietnam Veteran Steve Wheeler was the Escort Marshal, as the Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient led the procession.
Like the more recent escort, viewers showed their highest level of respect to the warfighters all along the way.
It was an honor for me to participate in the first escort in 2013, and equally an honor to be part of the more recent event. Although the years have passed since the last local appearances of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the crowds along the way were large and filled with patriotic flag-wavers and respectful applause.
History repeated itself for me, as I was a participant in both Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall appearances in North Haverhill and Claremont. It was certainly a special honor for me to be with Grandson Alex and to experience, once again, the agony and grief of those fellow veterans who fought the Vietnam War.
And I again pass along to them words that were offered hundreds of times during the previous visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, namely, “Welcome home.”

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