Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said he will attend the opening ceremony for the traveling veterans memorial, The Wall That Heals, coming to Star Valley this week.

Gordon described the exhibit as especially meaningful for Vietnam War veterans and families, saying many people don’t realize how the wall’s naming works. During an interview on the Weekday Wake-up, he said the particular exhibit is “so important” for Vietnam veterans, including his own family’s connection to the war.

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“The wall is so important for our Vietnam vets,” Gordon said. “Jenny’s brother went off to war when he was 17, didn’t tell his parents, and came back. He finally retired as a full bird colonel, but he’d served all the way through the war in Iraq.”

The governor said conversations with veterans across the state reinforced the exhibit’s impact, adding that he understands how important it is to give families time to reflect. “You talk to veterans around the state… and their memory… It’s so important to be able to have that moment to spend with the wall,” Gordon said.

He also addressed a detail he said he “didn’t fully appreciate” until experiencing the traveling exhibit: not all Vietnam-era deaths are listed on the Washington, D.C. version. “I did not realize that not all the names of those who passed… are on that wall,” he said. “Only people who died in country.”

Gordon said the traveling wall matters because it includes the names of those who died after being evacuated or transferred overseas. “Those that might have been evacuated to Japan… transferred to the Philippines… who ultimately succumbed; they weren’t on that wall,” he said. “And so these walls are so important because they have the full names of those who died and perished because of that war.”

Concluding his remarks, Gordon offered a message of gratitude and reflection for Vietnam veterans and the broader national history connected to the exhibit. “God bless every veteran who served there,” he said, adding, “God bless America this 250th year.”