Indiana veterans museum set to install Vietnam Memorial Wall replica

The Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana has made plans to purchase and install a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

The museum will reportedly purchase a retired, 360-foot-long traveling replica of the memorial, which is only 20% smaller than the original black granite wall in Washington D.C. Plans to install the piece on museum grounds before Veterans Day in November are already underway, but the museum is still looking for donations to help fund the endeavor. 

“[We] hope to raise as much as $300,000 in donations of money, materials and labor toward the wall purchase, its foundation, landscaping, lighting and benches,” said Greg Bedford, commander of the nonprofit museum to the Tribune Star.

“We decided to retire [the traveling replica], and rather than putting it into storage, we decided to sell it and let it have a good resting place where it can be honored and viewed,” said Rebecca True, chief operating officer of American Veterans Traveling Tribute, the former owners of the wall replica.

The museum is also looking for help funding WWI, WWII, Korean War,  post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, and Gold Star Families monument, which they hope to complete by Veterans Day 2021. 

“We think it is going to be an economic driver that will support what we are trying to do, and that is a memorial to all wars and all men and women that gave all,” Bedford said. 

The Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum in Fort Wayne has been around since 1950 and was founded by WWI veteran Eric Scott and his wife. 

The traveling wall can be viewed in the video below.