EVANGELINE PARISH — In the quiet hours of the night, the names glow under the lights.
Thousands of stories are etched into the black panels of the traveling Vietnam Wall — stories that still live on in the memories of those who served.
For Capt. Chuck Trenchard, secretary-treasurer of the Veterans of Ville Platte, “remembering the war” means more than looking back. It’s about sacrifice — and about honoring the ones who never came home.
“Sacrifice,” he said. “We have this little expression that says, ‘All gave some, some gave all.’ They gave all."
For Sgt. Terry Courville, remembering Vietnam means remembering a time when coming home wasn’t something to celebrate.
“When we came back, there were no parades,” Courville said. “We were told to take off the uniform. We were just kids. I couldn’t even buy a beer. We weren’t old enough to buy beer, yet they were sending us to war." At 19, Courville was leading other young men through the jungles of Vietnam.
He said their only goal was survival, a sentiment echoed by Spec 4 Soldier Mike Breaux.
“I was just wanting me and my buddies to survive,” Breaux said. “That’s about all it amounted to."
The war changed all of them — not just in combat, but in how they were seen once they returned home. Many say the hardest part wasn’t what they saw overseas, but the silence that greeted them when they got back.
There was one thing I heard from each and every Vietnam Veteran I spoke to at the wall: “We were just kids.”
For many of these men, the traveling wall is about more than names — it’s about connection, healing, and finally being seen.
Sgt. Terry Courville, Louisiana State Council president for the Vietnam Veterans of America, said events like this are a chance for veterans to reclaim the dignity they were once denied.
“When we got back, we didn’t talk about it. People didn’t want to hear it.” Courville said. “You just went on about your business and tried to forget, but you never really do.”
The traveling wall brings the Vietnam Veterans Memorial experience to communities across the country, offering comfort to those who can’t visit the permanent site in Washington, D.C.
Each name, more than 58,000 in all, is a reminder of the cost of service and the passage of time.
Back in Vietnam, when soldiers could get their hands on a beer, it was always warm.
So this weekend in Kinder, the veterans brought their own cases, set them out in the sun, waited for them to get hot again, and for a time, these veterans got to feel close to their fallen brothers in arms, even in the midst of their absence.
