SVI Media’s Dan Dockstader spoke with U.S. Senator John Barrasso after he visited The Wall That Heals on July 11 while it was in Star Valley.

The following transcript of the above interview is AI generated. Minor spelling errors are likely to occur.

(0:00) Just walking away from the Wall of Heals, U.S. Senator John Brasso made a special trip (0:04) into Star Valley to visit here in Athens today. (0:06) Your impressions of this memorial for Vietnam, sir? (0:10) Well, you know, Dan, it was such a historic time in our country, and the turnout here (0:18) in Lincoln County has been remarkable. (0:21) People have come from all around the state, I just talked to a group from Lander, people (0:26) from Casper have come in, and they want to once again remember what happened in Vietnam (0:33) and honor those who lost their lives.

(0:35) Sir, you actually visited Vietnam, too. (0:38) I did with Senator John McCain, and we went back to visit the area where he had been (0:42) held as a prisoner of war, and they called it the Hanoi Hilton, but it wasn’t a Hilton, (0:48) it was tortured, he had been shot down, broke both of his arms, and you just can’t go through (0:56) something like that quickly, as you can’t with this here, and I would encourage anybody (1:00) in the community to come and see this and learn the history, and the educational component (1:05) of it is so very critical to it as well. (1:09) One of my medical partners was in Vietnam in the year 67, and everybody has a connection (1:15) who’s of our age, Dan, people, friends whose names are on the wall, or associates.

(1:22) My medical partner was an orthopedic surgeon at the time, his medic was killed while they (1:26) were taking care of someone, so that gets so close to home, and the impact that it goes (1:32) through the generations is that his medic, his wife was at home pregnant, and so the (1:39) girl that was born now 58 years ago never knew her dad, because he had passed, and his name’s (1:46) on the wall here, as we go to walk the wall here in Afton, his name is on the wall, and (1:53) every 10 years in Washington we read all the names, starting from one to the last, tens (2:00) and tens of thousands, they do it over four days, and it ends on Veterans Day, so we never (2:04) forget what happened here, the sacrifices that were made on behalf of our freedoms, (2:10) and we just finished and celebrated here in Afton and around the state the 250th birth (2:16) of our country, and the Declaration of Independence, and the freedoms and the liberties and the (2:21) greatness that has come, and for many they paid the ultimate sacrifice, the prices that (2:27) were paid, and their names are on the wall here, and they need to always be remembered. (2:31) I’m just so impressed with your community, the commitment, the mayor, the committees, (2:36) the Veterans of Foreign War who made that application, hundreds of communities apply every year, (2:43) and they accepted maybe 31 this year, they took less than one out of five, and yet they (2:49) chose this community, and talking to the organizers they said, we’re always looking for volunteers (2:54) to help put it up, and then take down afterwards, so the students from this community, and I (2:59) was here with them at the FFA banquet not too long ago, the students from this community (3:03) what normally takes nine hours to do the job, they did it in five, because that’s how good (3:07) workers they are, no surprise, no surprise, and these organizers that were here from other (3:15) places around the country talked about these kids, I said well Teddy Roosevelt got it (3:18) right when he spoke at the University of Wyoming in 1903, and he said you’ve gotten (3:22) here a great education, more important than the education he said, is the character of (3:26) the people, and that’s what you have in this community, and under your leadership, and (3:30) the mayor was here today, we’re so fortunate and so blessed to have all of you, and thanks (3:37) to the commitment of this community, we have a wall here.