Robert Hill: Confronting a name at the Vietnam wall prompts gratitude and resolve

Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial was blessed to host the presence of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, a smaller-scale replica of the actual memorial in Washington, D.C. I hope many of you were able to make it to the traveling wall, whether simply to pay your respects or for the Memorial Day commemoration.

The bare inscriptions on the wall of the 58,303 names of Americans who died during the Vietnam War are stark and painful reminders of the costs of war and the sacrifice given by loyal citizens and their families. As was the case during my first trip to the actual memorial in our nation's capital, I experienced again at the traveling wall on Memorial Day: a deep recognition of the impact of the Vietnam War on multiple generations of Americans and the need for healing and hope, most especially for our veterans and their families.

And, as with my first visit to the actual wall, so with this visit: I saw my own name, right at the midway point of the wall, about shoulder high. The name inscribed was actually “Robert M Hill,” but the different middle initial did not blunt my shock. Through a quick internet search, I came to discover that the “Robert Hill” on the wall was from Starkville, Miss., and that he died at the age of 24, at Pleiku, on Nov. 15, 1965, almost three months to the day from when he began his tour of duty.

I also learned that his “casualty type” was “hostile” and that he “died outright,” meaning that whatever suffering he might have encountered was hopefully minimal.

Seeing my own face reflected back at me with my name on the wall, I realized we all face ourselves and our relationship to the war through those remembered there. And we all have an abiding stake in what happens to each and every person whom our nation ever sends into harm’s way.

As I walked away from the Traveling Wall, I offered a silent prayer, a prayer that was, as the war was, complicated, full of poignant thanks for those who so willingly served, anguished grief over the collective blundering that resulted in so many deaths, and resolve to help, as best I can, those who remain and those still coming home from further wars.

This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Robert Hill: Confronting a name at the Vietnam wall prompts gratitude and resolve."