Usually forming a V, the wall lists the names in chronological order with 1959, the year of the first American casualties, at the apex. Because of space, the wall stood in a straight line at Father Judge. Shears, a professional silk screener, said many replicas of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial exist, but the Moving Wall is the only one at half-scale. Every year the panels, after being handled 50 times a year and exposed outdoors, must be re-screened. The original Moving Wall was made of plexiglass, the second of Formica, but the elements deteriorated them and made name rubbings difficult.
People wait years for the wall.
Some applications are five years old, and she is trying to meet those requests this year. Shears expected up to 20,000 people to visit the Moving Wall at Father Judge. It's very emotional. He visited the Washington memorial in 1982 but couldn't bring himself to approach the wall. He said his emotional problems after the war led to his divorce.