Vietnam wall cermeony underway

At this hour, the ceremony is underway for the start of the exhibit of the Vietnam Moving Wall in Oconee County, and the turnout is tremendous.  So many cars and trucks made their way into the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative complex that traffic backed up both ways on nearby highway 11.  State Rep. Bill Whitmire called the crowd “unbelievable.”  There’s much emotion tied up in the display of the wall that contains the names of more than 58,000 Americans who fought to their death in the southeast Asia war from the 1960s to the mid 1970s.  Twenty-one of the war dead were from Oconee County. Frank Kuhn and Scoot Sheriff are just two examples of Oconeeans who approached the wall with eyes reddened.  Presiding at the ceremony, Jerry Dyar of Oconee Veterans Affairs gave the credit to his office colleague, Janice Matheson, for arranging the moving wall to exhibit in Oconee during Veterans Day week and weekend.  Among those in attendance are U-S Senator Lindsey Graham and U-S Rep. Jeff Duncan.