It's Susie...

I was glancing through the Tifton Gazette website tonight and look who I found?!?! It's Susan! The caption says...Margie Jarworski, the Tifton Police Department’s Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni treasurer (front, left) recently presented a $1,000 check to Susan Tucker (front right), who is organizing the Vietnam Moving Wall’s visit here Oct. 23-29. The money will be used to purchase flags that will line the route the wall will take through Tifton on its way to Eighth Street Middle School for display. Other members of the academy pictured include (back, from left) Ginger Kelly, secretary; Iris Smith, vice president; and Jerry Hopwood, president.

Here are some of the other articles that's been published about her and the Moving Wall...

Published July 23, 2008 06:32 pm -

They plan to paint Tifton red, white and blue with flags. They are Susan Tucker and Bill Johnson and they serve on the committee to bring the Vietnam Moving Wall to Tifton this Fall.

“They call me ‘The Wall Lady,’” Tucker said.
“They call me ‘The Flag Man,’” Johnson said.

When the Vietnam Moving Wall comes to Tifton in late October, Tucker and Johnson plan to have the route the wall will take through Tifton lined with flags. She would like to have 58,000 flags — one for each Vietnam veteran name on the wall — but said that might not be realistic.

The wall will arrive in Tifton on October 22 and will be placed in the sallyport at the City of Tifton Police Department for security reasons. The next day it will travel down Main Street and turn west on Eighth Street to the Eighth Street Middle School. The wall will be set up on the field in the middle of the walking track and will remain there through October 28.

“We would like to have every street lined with flags,” Tucker said. “For people coming off the Interstate we want to be able to say, ‘Follow the flags.’”

Tucker and Johnson plan to have the name of a veteran written on the staff of the flag. To participate in Tucker and Johnson’s plans, everyone needs to do the following:
• Go to the main Fire Station and ask for Michael Coleman in the front office. You can purchase a flag for $2 and write the name of your loved one on the flag. Leave the flag you have purchased at the station.
• Or, you can go to Eighth Street Middle School and see the receptionist or ask for Susan Tucker and purchase the flag.
• Or, you can mail a check to: Susan Tucker, c/o Eighth Street Middle School, 700 West 8th Street, Tifton, 31794. Be sure to give the name you want on the flag and it will be put on the flag for you.

Tucker said she wants to encourage organizations as well as individuals to purchase flags. “If an organization wants to buy 50 flags in their name that would be great,” Tucker said.

Tucker said the wall will be in Tifton two weeks before the election and two weeks before Veteran’s day. “We want every Vietnam vet honored in some way,” Tucker said.

The wall coming to Tifton will be a regional event. “This is the only place in Georgia the wall will be in this year,” Tucker said. She said the wall would be coming to Tifton from North Charleston, South Carolina. When it leaves it will go to Bradenton, Florida, and then it will return to its home base for the remainder of the year. “We want every county in Georgia to know about it,” she said.

Tucker and Johnson said they have been reaching out to neighboring counties to let them know of the event. The money left over from purchasing the flags will be used to advertise the wall being in Tifton. Any other money left over will be given to the Vietnam Combat Veterans organization.

Tucker has already begun making plans for some of the ceremonies and events which will take place during the week the wall is in Tifton. She is arranging for the Marine Corp Band out of Albany to play and for Keith Stone to play the bagpipes every evening before taps. The Military Vehicle Preservation Association will have vehicles and equipment displayed on the field. For the nine veterans from Tifton with their names on the wall, Tucker plans to have a memorial with nine inverted rifles.

Published July 23, 2008 06:24 pm - Help honor veterans

During the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak with a pretty remarkable person from Tifton. As many of you know, Mrs. Susan Tucker is working to bring the “Moving Wall” to Tifton this October.

For those of you who don’t know about the “Moving Wall,” it is a half size replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall that stands in Washington. There are over 58,000 names of soldiers who gave their lives fighting for our country during the Vietnam Conflict.

Of those 58,000-plus people listed on that wall, Tift County has nine soldiers of its own named there. I know there are some of you who might not know anyone listed there, but think of it this way: The youngest soldier from Tift County listed on the wall was just 19 years old. The youngest person in all on the wall was a young man who was born in Goldsboro, N.C. He died at the young age of 15 years old!

Now just think about that for a minute. These soldiers were just 15 and 19 years old. These young men’s lives had just barely begun, but they were sent off to war to fight for our country.

Every single one of those 58,000 names represents what was once a living, breathing person. Each person on that wall was someone’s father, mother, son, daughter or maybe just simply a best friend. Each and every person on that wall was loved by someone and they gave their lives to fight for our great country.

The wall itself is a remarkable memorial that is a testament to the sacrifice made by American soldiers during one of the most unpopular wars our country has ever been involved in. I can tell you first hand, when you walk among the heroes listed on this wall, you can not stop the feeling of pride that comes over your. You can not help but get a “goose bump” feeling that will make the hair on your arms rise and a tear come to your eye. This memorial has the uncanny ability to bring out the American pride in you and you have to stand in awe of it.

I can guarantee you, because I know from first-hand experience, that when you leave this memorial, you will have a whole different respect for what the veterans of this great country have done and continue to do today. It is because of people like the ones listed on this wall that we have the freedoms we enjoy today.

Mrs. Tucker is working so hard to make this a wonderful event. In talking with her, I have realized that she has so many things planned to honor the soldiers that called Tift County home. However, in case some of you don’t know, Mrs. Tucker is also a teacher here in Tift County and she makes it her life’s passion to teach our children about history and the sacrifices of our veteran heroes. But, she needs the help and support of OUR community. Please try to give a few minute of your time, or spend a couple of dollars and make a donation to help with the cost of bringing “The Wall” to Tift County. Help her to honor these people. They gave their lives for us ... whether we knew them or not.

There are still people living right here in our community and surrounding counties today that have limitations on their lives each and every day. Some of them may be losing their eyesight or may be disabled and in a wheelchair, or maybe just don’t have the financial means to travel to Washington to see the original Vietnam Memorial. This “Moving Wall” may be the only opportunity they get to pay respect to their fallen comrades who they fought side by side with. Others may just need to pay respect to a friend, a father, mother, brother or sister.

Help her honor them!

Jeannine Taylor
Tifton

Published June 27, 2008 07:30 pm - Wall’s visit will honor all local service

First let me begin by saying how much I appreciate the service performed by the Tifton Gazette in publishing the needs of the Committee to Bring the “Moving Wall” to Tifton. I am also grateful for the response from the members of the community to those needs. I feel I need to clarify for those readers who questioned why, even though they know their loved one’s name is on The Wall, I did not include them specifically in my request for information.

I gathered information from two different sources in order to determine which servicemen from Tift County were listed on The Wall. The first source was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory of Names which is published by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. in Washington, D.C. It is the book that lists each name on the Wall alphabetically and specifies which panel and which line that person’s name can be found. It also lists the person’s branch of service, their rank, date of birth, date of casualty, the city listed as their home of record and whether that person is still missing in action.

The second source I used is the National Archives’ website entitled State-Level List of Casualties from the Korean War and the Vietnam War. On this site, information can be obtained either by alphabetical listing or by clicking on a state and accessing a listing of each service personnel’s home of record. Please allow me to quote directly from this site: “The National Archives and Records Administration prepared these state level casualty lists by creating extracts from the military casualty data files in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Record Group 330). The lists are based on the ‘home of record - state’ data provided by the serviceman or woman upon last entrance into military service. ‘Home of record’ does not necessarily refer to the place of birth, residence of next of kin, place of longest residence or other common uses of the term “hometown.”

Please know that it is not my intention to overlook or slight ANY Vietnam Veteran who resides in Tift County — either in the past or presently. There are over 1,500 names on The Wall from the state of Georgia. Since The Wall is going to physically be in Tift County, I, as chairman of the committee, chose to try to give special recognition to those who listed Tift County as their “Home of Record.”

Many visitors to The Wall will not know anyone personally whose name is on the Wall. What an honor it will be for us in Tift County to introduce our nine servicemen and their families to someone new. Those of you who have a relative whose name was not included in the Gazette article are in a unique position to personally honor him/her by volunteering your time when The Wall is here and introducing your loved one to us on a one-to-one basis. I would welcome your participation in this experience.

I would encourage anyone who might have a question about their loved one to contact me and together we can examine the resources I used. No one who served in Vietnam will be left unrecognized in some way during the visit of The Wall. I will do my best to make sure we “leave no one behind.”

Susan Tucker
Tifton

Published June 24, 2008 09:59 pm

The names of nine Tift County men who died in battle are among the 1,400 listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The Georgia history teacher who is organizing the Oct. 22-27 visit here of “The Moving Wall” is asking that the community tell her anything about those men and veterans of other wars so she can write it into history.

Susan Tucker teaches seventh and eighth-grade history at Eighth Street Middle School. She is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, married a veteran and has a son who is a veteran.

At the Tuesday meeting of the Tifton Lions Club at the Golden Corral, Tucker asked members if they knew how Lt. Harold B. “Pinky” Durham Jr., a Vietnam veteran and only recipient of the Medal of Honor, got his nickname. No one did.

“I heard that when he was born, the hospital had run out of blue blankets and they wrapped him in a pink one,” Tucker said.

In addition to Durham, the names of Franklin Thomas Collins, Robert Lee Dykes Jr., Hulus Edgar Key Jr. and Harold Ray Tyson, all of Tifton; Delma Ernest Dickens of Omega and George Thomas Spillers and Joseph Ray Wynn Jr., both of Chula, appear on the wall. Tucker is planning an archival booth that will be available near “The Moving Wall” for Vietnam veterans to have their pictures taken as they appeared in boot camp. Also, she’s encouraging them to either have their story videotaped at the booth or providing a typed version to organizers and placing the information in a book that she will donate to the Tifton-Tift County Genealogical Society. Also, if anyone wants to loan war memorabilia, it will be displayed in an exhibit at the Tifton Museum of Arts and Heritage.
Tucker, a native of Tifton, began organizing a fundraising campaign in February to bring the wall to Tifton. She said six sources donated the $4,000 needed to pay the Vietnam Combat Veterans, Ltd. organization in two weeks. She hopes others in the community will volunteer and donate funds to advertise the event through local media, to print flyers to distribute, to provide food for volunteers and decorations for the wall.

Tucker organized the ESMS History Club and those students and others will join her to take responsibility for the display while it is here. The moving wall will be erected on the campus at ESMS in the area of the track. People will have access to the wall around the clock beginning the morning of Oct. 23 through the afternoon of Oct. 27.
“The Moving Wall” is a half-size replica of the Washington, D.C., Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has been touring the country for more than 20 years. Only 40 communities each year have the privilege of hosting the wall.
“This year, the only place it’s coming in Georgia is to Tifton,” Tucker said.

Tucker told Lions Club members that the memorial helps bring healing to veterans and their friends and families and their visits are sometimes very emotional.

“I feel it’s an extremely important event because the Vietnam War affected everybody,” Tucker said. “My wish is for the five days the wall is at Eighth Street Middle School, (that it will be) the No. 1 place people can go and find peace.”

“The Moving Wall” is made of Plexiglass and aluminum and is 250 feet long and four feet tall at each end and six feet tall in the center. The names of the 58,425 men and women who died in Vietnam is silk-screened on the black panels. Many of the people who visit the wall leave mementos, some of which are artifacts of the war. All of the items left at the Moving Wall are collected the last day of the display, marked, boxed and shipped to the Vietnam Combat Veterans, Ltd., office in White Pine, Mich. The artifacts are stored there until they are displayed in glass cases below the flag of each state the memorial has visited.

TIFTON — The Moving Wall, the nation’s first and only traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, will be in Tifton from Oct. 22 - 27. The visit is sponsored by the Eighth Street Middle School History Club on behalf of all the veterans in Tifton and the surrounding area.

Susan Tucker, the faculty advisor of the history club and chairman of the committee to bring the Moving Wall to Tifton, said that the club is honored to be able to sponsor this visit and proud to be even a small part of the special experience. The memorial helps to bring healing to veterans, families and friends of those men and women who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Bring the wall to Tifton also helps provide an opportunity for those people in Tifton and Tift County who may not be able to go to Washington to visit the original wall.
The Moving Wall allows people to experience the memorial; to reach out and touch the name of a loved one. Visiting the wall is a very emotional experience, even for people who don’t personally know someone who died in Vietnam.

In 1982, John Devitt, a former helicopter door gunner and Army veteran, visited Washington, D.C. for the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and to participate in the National Salute to Vietnam Veterans. This visit and experience changed Devitt’s life and led to the creation of the Moving Wall. Devitt, the chairman and founder of the Moving Wall, wanted to capture the spirit he felt at the Washington, D.C. memorial and share it with people who couldn’t travel there to see the monument. In 1983, he and some friends spent 22 months and about $28,000 in donations to build his original Plexiglas/aluminum replica of the memorial. The result was a replica that measures 250 feet long. It is four feet tall at each end and six feet tall in the center. Upon the replica are inscribed the names of the 58,425 men and women who died in Vietnam. Each name is silk-screened on the black panels.

The Moving Wall visits about 40 cities a year and the stays range from the normal five days to a week. There is no admission fee charged to visit the Moving Wall. Many of the people who visit the Moving Wall leave mementos for their loved one. All the items left at the Moving Wall are collected the last day of the display, marked, boxed and then shipped to the Vietnam Combat Veterans, Ltd., office in White Pine, Mich. There the artifacts are put in storage until they are displayed in glass cases below the flag of each state the memorial has visited.

Tucker said it is a chance for her to give special thanks to her father for his service in Vietnam. She said that because he physically will never be able to make it to the wall in Washington, she is especially grateful for this privilege of bringing the wall to her father.

Those who come to the Moving Wall while it is in Tifton may be looking for a certain name. Volunteers will be on the site to help people locate a name on the wall.