©South Bend Tribune -- March 28, 1999
Moving Wall on display in September
BERRIEN SPRINGS--The Moving Wall and its 58,213 names of casualties of the Vietnam War or soldiers still listed as prisoners of war or missing in action will be displayed at the Youth Fairgrounds in Berrien Springs Sept. 17 through 25. The exhibit will be open to the public around the clock. Hosts will be Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4952 and American Legion Post 85 in Berrien Springs.
The half-scale model of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., has been touring the country since 1984. It's been on display twice in South Bend and once in Coloma, making its Berrien Springs' appearance its second in Berrien County.
Veterans who plan to visit the memorial can stay free at Shamrock Park near the St. Joseph River. Reservations are required and may be made by calling Park Ranger Stacy (Nick) Nicodemus at (616) 473-5691.
The Wall's appearance in the village will cost a minimum of $6,000, mainly to feed and lodge a crew that accompanies the exhibit. Anyone wishing to make a donation may do so at the Pinnacle Bank in Berrien Springs, where the post has established a Moving Wall account, or by contacting VFW Post commander Robert Halgren at (616) 471-2427 or American Legion Post commander Donald Kilgore at (616) 471-2152.
Halgren and Kilgore are also compiling a list of volunteers interested in helping out during the Wall's stay.
©South Bend Tribune -- March 28, 1999 
Cliff Nelson is hoping the September appearance of The Moving
Wall in Berrien Springs will help Vietnam War veterans like himself find peace. He's
standing near the grave of David Berkholz, one of two Berrien Springs residents killed in
Vietnam. Berkholz is buried in Berrien Springs' Rose Hill Cemetery.
Tribune Photo/LOU MUMFORD
Veteran: Vietnam Memorial awakens emotions
By LOU MUMFORD
Tribune Staff Writer
BERRIEN SPRINGS--In 1993, when Vietnam War veteran Cliff Nelson made his second trip to Washington, D.C., to view the Vietnam Memorial, he thought he'd be able to handle the experience better than he had the year before.
He was wrong.
Nelson said he had been asked by a friend, Steve Bielas, an employee of Andrews University, to get a "rubbing,'' or likeness, of a specific name on the Wall. The soldier was someone Nelson hadn't even known.
"I don't know why, but when I went up there to take that name off the Wall, I had my paper and crayon and they just dropped. I couldn't hold it,'' the Berrien Springs man recalled.
"A woman about the age of my mother came up and just held me. I don't know who she was. Someone else had to get the name for me.''
He said the memorial in Washington and its half-scale replica, The Moving Wall, has that kind of effect on people, whether they are veterans or not. That's why he initiated an effort nearly two-and-a-half years ago, on behalf of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4952 in Berrien Springs, to bring the replica to the village.
He said he had given up hope the Wall would make a stop here until he received a letter in January, informing him of the Wall's arrival on Sept. 17.
"I read it, and I just sat there and cried,'' said Nelson, quartermaster of the VFW post.
The Wall lists the names of more than 58,000 veterans who were either killed in Vietnam or are still listed as prisoners of war or missing in action. Two of those names--Johnny Wetzel and David Berkholz--belong to Berrien Springs soldiers that died in the conflict.
"It'll be nice for the community to have it right here. Everybody in the community has been good to me,'' said Nelson, a construction worker and father of four who has lived in the village since 1985.
A native of Nebraska, Nelson said he was drafted in 1970 and trained as a medic. He said that meant trying to save the lives of soldiers he didn't know.
"There are guys on that Wall I worked on, but I can't tell you the name of a single one,'' he said. "I didn't keep a tally. I was there to do a job.''
Pacing back and forth in his apartment on First Street, Nelson recalled a day when helicopters arrived carrying soldiers badly wounded in a land-mine explosion.
"I was covered in blood after getting the first guy off. Both his legs were gone,'' he said. "The next guy, he had one leg missing, and the rest had shrapnel (wounds) from head to foot.
"While I was working on these guys, I heard cries from some of the other guys they had brought in. They were telling us to just let them die. They were crying out in agony.''
Nearly 30 years later, he said he can't shake the experience.
"I don't have flashbacks, but I think about things. I still hear their voices in the back of my head,'' he said.
He said he can't tolerate, either, the sound of a helicopter.
"If a helicopter flies over today, I want to get back inside. I shudder. I think I'm back over there,'' he said.
He said when he first visited the Vietnam Memorial, it was on the 10th anniversary of its dedication. As part of the ceremony, all 58,000 names were read aloud, over a period of several days.
The experience made such an impact, he said, that he had to visit not only the memorial again but the Moving Wall on the two occasions it came to South Bend.
"To just keeps drawing you back to it,'' he said.
When the Wall is here in September, Nelson said he'll ponder the same question that has plagued him and many other veterans as well. Why was he spared when so many others weren't?
Maybe this time, he'll receive an answer.
