SIMI VALLEY, California -- The Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. honors over 58,000 service members who died in service to their nation; in November, a mobile, half-scale version of the memorial, known as The Wall That Heals, came to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Capt. Karl Andina, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division vice commander, helped welcome the mobile display during an emotional ceremony at the library Nov. 19.

Taking the stage after Ron Reyes, whose 19-year-old father died in Vietnam just four weeks after his birth, Andina struggled with the emotion of the moment.

“As a father, I cannot imagine not having the chance to know my children,” Andina said. “Your story touches me as I’m sure it does every mother, father, son and daughter here today…. Your story reminds us that for every name we engrave in stone, for every shipmate we mourn, there is a family whose grief is indelibly marked upon their souls.”

Andina reflected on the power of memorials like Memorial Hall at the Naval Academy and the Vietnam Memorial have on those who stand before them.

“As one walks along the wall, day or night, you can see your reflection in the black granite,” Andina noted, recalling the Wall as a silent testament to the fallen. “It reflects back through the names of the honored dead…For me, reflection is one of the main purposes of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and of The Wall That Heals.”

They offer visitors a chance to reflect on the service and sacrifice of those memorialized, Andina noted, but they also offer a real, personal connection. A realization that the inscribed names are more than just names; they are faces – people. They are sons, daughters, husbands, and wives, just like the men and women visiting the memorial itself.

The mobile display and education center than make up The Wall That Heals bring that opportunity to connect into communities across the nation. That, Andina said, is what makes the display so special.

“Not everyone can travel to Washington, D.C.,” he explained. “Not everyone can stand at the apex of its black chevron and feel the weight of sacrifice and service memorialized there. Not everyone has the opportunity to reflect, as I did as a young midshipman, on their own personal connection with 58,000 brothers and sisters who gave their lives in service to our nation.”