Reflections at
The Wall 2012
SUN PHOTO BY SUE PAQUIN
Al Hemingway makes a rubbing of Richard Norman Rivards name at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
SUN PHOTO BY SUE PAQUIN
This statue of three soldiers overlooks The Wall.
SUN PHOTO BY SUE PAQUIN
Visitors searching for a name are reflected on The Wall, along with an American flag placed there for the memorial's 30th anniversary.
SUN PHOTO BY SUE PAQUIN
Richard Norman Rivard was killed April 15, 1968.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even after 30 years, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is still a sobering sight. To stand before it and look at the 58,282 names that are etched upon its black granite stone can be extremely emotional for me — so many lives that were taken from us by the insanity of war.
On this trip, however, I am searching for one specific name, Richard Norman Rivard, half-brother of “Bart” Bartisavitch, the maintenance man at our condo complex. Rivard had served with B Battery, 1st Battalion, 40th Artillery in Quang Tri Province — the same area I served in with the Marines in 1969 as a radio operator. He was killed on April 15, 1968. The cause of death was artillery, rocket or mortar fire.
