When I was driving around New Mexico a few years ago, I was surprised to find a Vietnam veterans memorial near the town of Fire Angel. My afternoon at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park (its current name) was one of the most memorable of my life. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, built in Angel Fire, New Mexico, by Dr. Victor Westphall in memory of his son and all who died in The Vietnam War commemorates the sacrifices made by all Vietnamese and loved ones.
Driving from Angel Fire up to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I had trouble deciding what I saw. The chapel seems to be suspended in the air on the mountain, as if it lifts the painful memory of all of them, Vietnam old or not, qu? still suffering losses in the Vietnam War.
As I walked around the grounds and through the visitor center, I was almost afraid to enter the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Chapel. The interior is the highest. A few seats have no upholstery, only cushions and tissue boxes. On the back wall, pictures of those who died in the Vietnam War are rolled up for months to provide the faces of the men by the numbers. Everyone who comes there, old Vietnam or not, I think, fills the void of memories and personal feelings. The name of the neighboring town, Angel Fire, seems strangely appropriate. There is something angelic here, and there is a worldly sense of fire.
There is, of course, a much better known memorial to those who died in the Vietnam War that fell on the ground in Washington, DC. I cannot understand why these other Vietnam Veterans Memorials are not more well known, except that there is no Angel in Washington Fire, New Mexico. But the journey is worth it, because for me it is about hope, as if rising from the building itself, from the great pain of the country (and the nation).
The day I was there, I spoke with Dr. Victor (“Doc”) Westphall, for whom the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and its mission were as deeply personal as they were openly expansive. Like losing a son, he had adopted nearly sixty thousand children who died in Vietnam and opened a spiritual home at Angel Fire to all Vietnam veterans and their friends and families.
“Doc” Westphall died in 2003, and ownership of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial went through several legal changes. Opened in 1971 as the Vietnam Veterans of Peace and Brothers Chapel, this chapel in the mountains near Angle Fire, New Mexico, is now operated by New Mexico State Parks as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, the first Vietnam Veterans memorial in the state’s public park. nation
It amazes me that the horrors of the Vietnam War, still strong in the memories of Vietnam veterans and all of us, can be commemorated in a place of such beauty and peace, such as this almost otherworldly Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If you want to experience the Vietnam Veterans Park yourself, you can get directions here and plan your trip on the website.
