'The Wall That Heals,' traveling replica of Vietnam Veterans Memorial, headed to Copiague  

Can’t make it to Washington, D.C.?

Head to Tanner Park in Copiague, where next week the Town of Babylon will host a traveling scale-model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall — a replica measuring 375 feet long, 7½ feet high and, like the original memorial, including the names of more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed or missing in action during service in Vietnam.

Called “The Wall That Heals,” the replica is the work of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which this year will bring it to 34 cities and towns across America, transported by a 53-foot-long tractor trailer, complete with a mobile education center and a display of Vietnam-era items.

Since 1996, the nonprofit VVMF has brought the mobile wall to more than 700 venues throughout the Lower 48 states, as well as Ireland. Spokesman Tim Tetz said it was just announced that it soon will be going to Hawaii. And, he said: “We’re working on Alaska.”

Starting Thursday, the wall will be displayed at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, site of the 1964 World’s Fair. Thousands are expected to attend the exhibit, which is free to the public and will be open 24 hours a day from Thursday through Sunday. The MTA has announced shuttle bus service to the site from the Mets-Willets Point subway stop hourly between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

After its appearance at Flushing Meadows, the wall will be trucked to Tanner Park, where it will be on display from Thursday, Oct. 5, through Sunday, Oct. 8. Again, admission is free.

And, the site will be open to the public 24 hours a day.

While it’s the first time “The Wall That Heals” will be displayed in the Town of Babylon, it’s not the first time a replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall has been on display in the town.

Back in 1995, a three-quarter scale replica owned by Dignity Memorial, the national funeral home chain, was displayed on the lawn at Babylon Town Hall in Lindenhurst. Charlie Spencer, president of the Claude R. Boyd-Spencer Funeral Home in Babylon, a Dignity Memorial member, helped arrange that appearance — which officials said drew almost 20,000 visitors.

And before that replica was donated to the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning — now, Fort Moore — in Georgia, Spencer helped bring it to a handful of other locations across Long Island, including West Islip, Massapequa, Northport, Hicksville, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial at Bald Hill, Calverton and Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.

The idea to bring “The Wall That Heals” to the Town of Babylon was hatched when Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer and Spencer got to talking at an event last fall. Spencer had worked with Schaffer to bring the other replica wall to the town. After their conversation, Spencer contacted the VVMF — and made it happen.

“At first they told me no, because of Flushing Meadows,” Spencer said of those calls, which began last September. “They said it was too close. But I told them, ‘It’s two different worlds. That’s New York City — and, we’re separate and distinct.’ I also told them, ‘We have the highest veterans population of any county in New York State.”

According to the latest population statistics from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Suffolk County was home to nearly 60,000 veterans, more than any other county in the state, in 2020 and Nassau had about 41,400.  

That, and fundraising more than $25,000, guaranteed the appearance, Spencer and town officials said.

Visitors to the replica wall have recounted seeing veterans, in the dead of night, seated near the name of a friend — or, an old platoon buddy — who was lost in Vietnam.

“It’s powerful,” Spencer said.

“What it does,” Tetz said, “is replicate the Washington, D.C., experience. For those who can’t get there, it makes it accessible.”

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”