When The Moving Wall exhibit arrives in Urbana for a five-day stop June 9, it will do so bearing the names of 58,000-plus men and women who died during the Vietnam War, including 10 Champaign County natives.
Urbana resident David Brandeberry, local coordinator for the traveling exhibit, said plans are underway to have a “special tribute” for the 10 men with county ties who lost their lives in a war he knows all too well.
From February 1968 to February 1969, Brandeberry served in Vietnam as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy. During this time, four of his fellow countymen were killed.
“One of them, Carl Richard Dagger, was a classmate of mine at Urbana High School,” he said. “Bringing The Moving Wall to Urbana gives us an opportunity to honor and pay tribute to these local men who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.”
Being able to see the names of his fellow comrades memorialized on the half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be something Brandeberry has yet to experience.
“I have never seen the original wall or the traveling wall,” he said. “I’ve been told it’s quite a moving experience in either case.”
Listed below are the names of the 10 Champaign County servicemen killed during the Vietnam War and the location of each name etched on the memorial:
•Walter L. Burroughs, of North Lewisburg, on panel 07E – line 68
•Robert Thomas Reed, of Mechanicsburg, on panel 12E – line 71
•William Emerson Shaffer, of Cable, on panel 55E – line 30
•Michael A. Bailey, of Urbana, on panel 58E – line 29
•Carl Richard Dagger, of Urbana, on panel 62E – line 2
•Wetzel Lonnie Eldridge, of Urbana, on panel 64W – line 9
•Philip Lee Grieser, of St. Paris, on panel 24W – line 41
•William Michael Short, of St. Paris, on panel 21W – line 72
•Donald Dale Hall, of Urbana, on panel 09W – line 23
•Lester Eugene Parker, of Urbana, on panel 09W – line 106
