Skip to main content

News and Media

Open Main MenuClose Main Menu
A veteran visits a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Oklahoma State University campus.

OSU hosts The Wall That Heals

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Thousands of guests visited the Oklahoma State University campus in April to view a 375-foot-long traveling version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, paying tribute to those who served and the more than 58,000 service members who died during the Vietnam War.

The Wall That Heals — which rises to an apex of 71⁄2 feet tall at its center — was displayed on the intramural athletic fields west of the Colvin Center.

“It was an honor to host The Wall That Heals,” said Rick Hansen, a retired Marine Corps captain and coordinator of OSU’s Office of Student Veteran Success, which serves more than 600 student, faculty and staff veterans.

“Seeing all the veterans and members of the community turn out to show their respect, and in some cases remember comrades and family members whose names are listed, was very moving.”

There are 987 Oklahomans on The Wall That Heals, including 16 from Payne County, according to data from the National Archives.

The exhibit also included a mobile education center about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the lasting impacts of that war.

Stillwater was the eighth of 34 stops in 2019 for the traveling exhibit, which honors the more than 3 million Americans who served during the Vietnam War.

The Wall That Heals was brought to OSU by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a nonprofit that funded the construction of the Maya Lin- designed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1982.

MENUCLOSE