• A multi-story feature on The Wall That Heals appeared in the July 15, 2026 edition of the Star Valley Independent. 

Thousands of patriots, veterans, neighbors and friends lined the streets and backroads of Star Valley on Tuesday, July 8 to welcome The Wall That Heals into the valley, while four veterans took to the skies serving as backseat passengers in three T-6 Texans and a Bird Dog military plane.

Veterans Dennis Christensen, Lee Schwab and Mike Parks enjoyed attending the motorcade escort from above, waiting patiently for the moment when they made three formational passes over Afton’s Elkhorn Arch as The Wall passed beneath it. Barry Shupe watched the entire escort from the cockpit of a Bird Dog reconnaissance plane. Pilots Karl Gashler, Chris Barton, Michael Sisk and Phil Phillips volunteered their skills to give these vets a dream flight.

When asked about his experience, Christensen enthusiastically shared, “It was awesome!” The 75-year-old veteran served in the U.S. Air Force working in aircraft structural applications during the Vietnam War. After his 1968 graduation from high school in Iowa City, Iowa, he enlisted in 1969, hoping for an assignment as a crew chief. Color blindness, however, meant that he would instead serve in his more technical role.

“Getting in the back seat of the airplane [on Tuesday] was the real trick.” His experience in the air over The Wall allowed him a brief opportunity to take control of the plane “just for a little bit. Just flying straight and level,” which he thoroughly enjoyed.

He said that this visit to a Vietnam Memorial was the best. “The brief about the Vietnam War was the best I have ever heard,” as he volunteered on the grounds where The Wall was installed for the week, he shared meaningful conversations with many veterans who came to experience their own healing. “I wish every veteran could get their wish,” he said in a voice thick with emotion. “I got mine. If everybody could get a wish….”

Born and raised in Star Valley, Lee Schwab dropped out of school at 17 to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966. “In the next life,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “I’m gonna do it different.” He spent 20 months of his tour in Vietnam and the rest in the U.S.

During his flight on Tuesday, he saw things he had never seen and was “impressed” and “thrilled” to watch the motorcade of more than 100 vehicles that escorted The Wall through the valley. “It’s impressive to be part of what’s going on. I’m impressed with the learning opportunity that this wall gives people to help younger people appreciate what freedom is all about. It helps make us aware of what freedom really costs, and you are worth it! This country is worth the service! It was a beautiful day and probably one of the most exciting things I have done in a long, long time!”

Barry Shupe, who was the back seat passenger in the Bird Dog, had “a great time! I had been in a Texan before, but I had never been in a Bird Dog before.”

With three hours in the aircraft, Shupe and his pilot, Phil Phillips, followed the motorcade all the way from Alpine to the middle school, “seeing everything with a bird’s eye view. It was great seeing everyone there to watch The Wall come in! That was wonderful!”

After graduating from high school in Glendale, California, Shupe served in the Marine Corp from 1970 to 1973. He and his wife volunteered every day this week at the wall. “I worked at the education center and was able to talk to a lot of the veterans that came through, to hear their stories and their experiences. It gave me time to reflect on why we were there and what we were trying to accomplish. It was good to see and hear all the veterans and to see how this helped them to remember their lost ones and their friends and that was an honor.”

Shupe felt that The Wall not only is serving to heal the hearts of veterans and families who lost loved ones, it could be helping to heal society’s understanding of the value of freedom and the sacrifice that these men and women freely gave. “We really don’t talk much about the Vietnam War and why it was fought and all the young kids that went and didn’t come home. I think it was very educational, I think that’s really important.”