Vietnam veteran Edmund Schwab (right), of Bowling Green, touches "The Wall That Heals"  in Franklin in this file photo. His wife, Angela, is with him. The wall is a half-scale version of the memorial in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Joe Imel/jimel@bgdailynews.com)

Cave City residents are preparing to bring a traveling scaled-down replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the community this year.

A pre-planning meeting will be at 3 p.m. Jan. 12 at Cave City Convention Center, 502 Mammoth Cave Road. The meeting will look at the site location and include details such as budgeting, scheduling and organizing volunteers.

The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall will be available for viewing Sept. 1-5 at the Cave City Convention Center. The wall will arrive Aug. 31 for set up and depart Sept. 6.

“We will be discussing opening and closing ceremonies, escorts from the state line to Cave City and a free concert with a military band,” said Sharon Tabor, executive director of the Cave City Tourist and Convention Commission. “We’re happy to invite all who are interested. If they could send a member to our group we would gratefully appreciate it.”

The average attendance to view the wall is 5,000 to 6,000 people over a three-day period, Tabor said.

Bowling Green and Franklin have hosted a traveling wall.

“The Vietnam traveling wall is a 300-foot display of all the men who lost their lives in Vietnam,” she said. “It will be in front of the convention center. There will be 24-hour security. There will be at least two people to monitor the wall 24 hours a day.”

Taking care of the wall will “take a lot of logistics,” Tabor said.

“It’s a way for us to do something for the community. It will take 18 to 20 people to set it up and help take it down. It takes three to six hours to set it up and three to five hours to take it down,” she said. “We’re required between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. to have a minimum of two volunteers.”

The volunteers help find the section of the wall with the name of the person that loved ones are looking for, Tabor said.

“If you’re looking for someone, they have the name on the list and the section of the wall. They can help that person find the section of the wall,” she said. “People can make rubbings of the wall. People can leave memorials. We’d like to have a military band concert also.”

Command Sgt. Maj. Phillip Gearlds, instructor of the Barren County High School JROTC, saw the traveling wall last year in Edmonton.

“My cadets performed there and they’ll be performing at the one at the convention center,” he said.

Gearlds has seen the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and said he was amazed at how much the traveling wall looked like the original wall.

“I thought how powerful it was to bring something of that magnitude to some of these small towns,” he said. “Just to stand in front of it – it’s not exactly like it, but a whole lot.”

Gearlds fought in Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Operation Enduring Freedom, but he knows family and friends who fought in Vietnam.

“The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans – they all have lots of Vietnam veterans,” he said.

— Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter @bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.