AREA VETERANS HELP AT MOVING WALL

The last time Mike Smith worked closely with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall was to help bring it to Cape Girardeau in 1989. This weekend he'll serve in St. Louis as part of an honor guard liaison emissary for the wall.

Smith said he is one of five members in the Headquarters Company of the Missouri National Guard's 1140th Engineers at Cape Girardeau who will carry out the duty, all voluntary. The five are also Vietnam veterans.

"We all feel that we are giving this time and work to our dead comrades," said Smith, a sergeant with the Guard who served in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. "We feel we came back and they didn't and we feel we are honoring them by volunteering our services for this."

The wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., was on display in St. Louis Friday, Saturday and today between Pine and Chestnut streets across from the Soldier's Memorial, Smith said. The wall carries the names of men and women from the military who died in the war.

Also carrying out the duty, Smith said, will be Staff Sgt. John Clemmons and Sgt. Ed Austin, also of Cape Girardeau; Sgt. Mike Watson of Sikeston; and Sgt. Larry Smith of Chaffee.

Mike Smith said Charles Kiefner, the state's adjutant general and head of the Missouri National Guard, picked the five for the duty.

The group's orders carry the names of 16 other Guard members from throughout Missouri who also will be helping, Smith said.

The five will work six-hour shifts Saturday and today, Smith said. They will be there, he said, to aid Vietnam veterans and others who are looking for names on the wall.

"Anything that comes up, we'll be there to help."

When the wall came to Cape Girardeau, Smith said, he served as chairman of the POW-MIA Committee at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 3838 in Cape Girardeau. He was part of an area joint veterans' council that succeeded in getting the wall to Cape Girardeau, he said.

Larry Smith said he felt "very honored" to be picked for the duty. Originally from Winona, Minn., Smith said he served as an Army infantryman in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967.

He said he visited the wall when it came to Cape Girardeau and that it was emotionally rewarding to see people honor those who died in the war.

"It kind of brings back memories, but it's something that you have to live with and fight through.

"I was fortunate to make it back. That's the way I look at it: they gave their lives and I was fortunate to make it back."