PANAMA CITY – The Global War on Terror Wall of Remembrance exhibit closed Sunday after being on public display in Oaks by the Bay Park since Friday.
“We decided that we needed it with 17 of our own Bay County people on it,” said Louie Davis, president of the Veterans Task Force of Northwest Florida, which sponsored the traveling memorial’s trip to Panama City.
Davis said another task force member had the idea to bring the wall to Panama City and brought it to the organization’s attention. The organization asked local businesses to sponsor the project. Only $4,500 was required to bring the memorial to town, but Davis said his organization raised close to $10,000. The surplus will be used to support the Veterans Task Force’s various veteran support programs.
“We decided that people around here need to know about the War on Terror,” Davis said.
The wall was built by civilian and military supporter Richard Nichols Jr. and marine David Brown. It was intended to be displayed once in Anaheim, Calif., in 2011, but has since travelled across the U.S.
On one side, the wall bears 10,786 names of armed forces members, 9/11 first responders and more who have been killed in action, officials said. It was last updated March 30, 2014.
On the other side, a timeline starting with bombing of a US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on April 18, 1983 and enumerating acts of terrorism up to the bombing of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.
Other small memorials were displayed around the wall, mostly pictures of lost service members. One display was titled “Last Letters Home” and included letters from service men and women overseas to family and friends back home.
Saturday’s closing ceremonies were marked by a speech by wounded veteran Mike Schlitz, a Native American tribute to the fallen and a cannon salute.
Schlitz, who served for 14 years, was medically retired after an IED blast killed his team and left him with burns over 85 percent of his body. He lost both his hands and the vision in his left eye.
“The reason we’re here today is to honor our fallen heroes, the names on these walls, the ones who gave it their very best,” Schlitz said.
Schlitz said he struggled with survivor’s guilt after his injury, but now refers to it as “survivor’s pride,” and uses it to motivate himself to honor his fallen comrades.
“To the last moment, they never gave up, so why would I want to give up?” Schlitz said.
The Seven Rivers Warrior Society, a local group for veterans of Native American descent, performed a crossing ceremony for those named in the memorial. Led by AWiEQua LuTiQuaLa “thundering elk” tribal war chief DoNaWaGa, the ceremony consisted of bestowing symbolic gifts and breaking an arrow to show that the warriors’ work is over. It closed with a prayer song that the audience was invited to join.
After, the Warriors Watch Riders gave a cannon salute and Coast Guard Auxiliary member Dale Crow performed Taps.