I remember a company sponsored trip to Alexandria Virginia in 1992 that brought several Electronics Technicians to work at our company service & support plant. On the first weekend of “Liberty”, we Buddied-Up and took one of the company cars to visit the sites of Washington, DC. We hit the Smithsonian, and art museums for most of the day. Afterwards, we walked along the Reflecting Pool that is always pictured in the DC photos, and headed to the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial. We saw several ‘Nam Vets walking along “The Wall”, making frequent stops, while looking for names of their Comrades in Arms that were lost during the war. Many were frozen to the wall, as they placed their hands upon the names of those lost, heads bowed, and crying aloud in an effort to speak with their lost friends.
One of the Park Service Rangers appeared and walked the length of the wall, quietly observing the visitors, and honoring those that came to pay respects to those that were lost. I noticed that the Ranger made several stops to engage in brief discussions with some visitors, then both he and the visitor would exchange a note or paper, then depart. As the Ranger drew closer I watched him repeat the process and hand the visitor a piece of paper, with the Veterans War Memorial logo, and a pencil. The Ranger was holding the paper over the etched name of the fallen soldier’s name while gently rubbing the pencil over the paper, generating a shadow of the name. These “rubbings”, as they are called, were a testimony of those who came to pay their respects to the fallen.
On my last trip in September 2010 to the Veteran’s Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I remembered this process from my experience many years before. I took some paper and my Kids crayons to create my own “Rubbings” on this visit. My body trembled as I began the process of pressing the paper and crayon onto the cold memorial marker. I felt what most of the Viet Nam Veterans felt, as they made their own rubbings at the Memorial in Washington. I made a second rubbing for my brother to keep, as a reminder of what our Dad, a WW-II Army Veteran, did for us and our country. We lost him to cancer last year, and this was our first time where we would be able to obtain our “Rubbing” from his new grave marker.
Enjoy your Veterans Day Memories!
Semper fidelis
1st Sgt Abe Aviles
USMC - Retired
Abe Aviles
Forest River
FR3 25DS
