From left, Upper Peninsula 5th Zone Sons of the Michigan American Legion Commander John Beeman presents a $6,500 check to John Devitt and Aaron Gray for the Moving Wall.

WHITE PINE — Upper Peninsula 5th Zone Sons of the Michigan American Legion at its winter meeting presented a $6,500 check for the Moving Wall in White Pine in Ontonagon County.

State Sons Commander John Beeman was in attendance to present the check to John Devitt and Aaron and Lisa Gray, chair of the Moving Wall. This money was raised by PDC Victor Fisher as his major project.

Members of a White Pine organization have toured the country for 32 years with half-size replicas of the Washington, D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Grays, of White Pine, have been hauling The Moving Wall to communities around the United States for the past several years. They will head out again May 14 and return home in November.

Another driver takes a second replica to other sites during the same time frame. And their work doesn’t end there.

“We redo panels when we’re home in the winter,” Lisa Gray said, referring to the silk-screening necessary to keep the panels looking good. Along with sprucing up damaged panels, Aaron Gray takes reservations for future stops about a year in advance. Severely damaged panels must be sent to an aluminum fabricator.

In the end, a more than 250-foot wall will be ready to be set up again — at 90- to 125-degree angles — like the original.

While it costs $5,000 to get the wall, donations come in at the sites.

“Donations are a big part of our financial help,” Lisa Gray said.

With all the travel comes many new friends and a lot of good and bad surprises, the Grays said. Often the large trucks that haul the wall break down, but the couple always finds a way around any setbacks.

“The wall’s never missed a spot,” Lisa Gray said. “No matter what it takes, we get the wall there.”

“You can’t stop,” Aaron Gray added. “I just think of all the people who want the wall.”

If all else fails, the organization’s founder, John Devitt of Ontonagon County, will rescue drivers who break down while touring with the wall, or find someone to help.

Inside the organization’s building near the White Pine mine are floor-to-ceiling piles of boxes of memorabilia several feet thick that the group has collected over the years.

“Every year we collect more,” Lisa Gray said.

The wall’s 50,000-plus names represent Vietnam casualties from 1959 to 1975. The war occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from Nov. 1, 1955, to the fall of Saigon April 30, 1975.

Devitt attended the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and National Salute to Vietnam Veterans. He wanted to share the experience with those unable to visit the Washington memorial.

Devitt was a U.S. Army helicopter gunner in the 1st Air Cavalry from 1967 to 1969. In the Tet offensive of 1968, his helicopter was shot down three times and crashed a fourth time when the engine failed.

Devitt, Norris Shears, Gerry Haver and other Vietnam veteran volunteers built The Moving Wall, which was displayed for the first time in 1984.

Two Moving Walls now travel the states, spending almost a week at each site. Any organization or group of individuals that want The Moving Wall can go to themovingwall.org for more information.