Freedom Tribute was set up at the Crawford Ball Fields, bringing an amazing opportunity right to our community.
The Traveling Wall is a massive, 80% scale replica of the famous Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Standing 8 feet tall and stretching 360 feet across the grass, it travels all over the
country. This allows people who might never get the chance to visit the nation’s capital to see it in person. The wall is made of a reflective black material. Seeing its massive length—and realizing how
small the text has to be to fit all 58,000+ names of brave soldiers—really makes you understand the immense scale of the lives lost. Many people searched for specific names, with several leaving
flowers, or old photographs at the base of the wall.
On September 9th, we had the privilege of visiting the display. One of our teachers challenged us with a meaningful mission: to locate the name of Dennis Moreno, a former Hay Springs alumnus, on the Vietnam Wall.
Right next to the wall stood the Cost of Freedom Tribute. This part of the display extended the honor beyond Vietnam, covering almost every major American conflict, including World War I, World War II, 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here, we were asked to complete the second part of our mission: finding the name of another Hay Springs alumnus, Corey Mracek.
Seeing local veterans standing guard and talking to visitors highlighted the true significance of the event. Bringing a monument like this to a small town like Crawford gives our community a rare,
hands-on opportunity to experience history, honor our local alumni, and remember the true cost of freedom.
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