Johns Creek Event Honoring Veterans, Memorial Rescheduled

JOHNS CREEK, GA — The Johns Creek Veterans Association, in conjunction with the City of Johns Creek, has rescheduled the planned “Honoring Our Veterans Ceremony” to March 28, 2020. The celebratory event, originally scheduled to take place this year on Nov. 16 at Newtown Park, 3150 Old Alabama Road, is being rescheduled due to programming and weather concerns which have hindered completion of the memorial’s first phase of construction.

The new date of March 28, 2020 was chosen for the “Honoring Our Veterans Ceremony” and celebration of the grand opening of the Wall That Heals Memorial because of its adjacency to National Vietnam War Veterans Day which occurs annually on March 29. The date of March 29 was designated as National Vietnam War Veterans Day with the signing of the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 because on March 29, 1973, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam was disbanded and the last U.S. combat troops departed the Republic of Vietnam.

The Johns Creek Veterans Association and the City of Johns Creek will use the new March 28, 2020 event to showcase local veterans, hear moving stories from guest speakers, and commemorate the official grand opening of the Wall That Heals, a 250-foot replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The future Wall That Heals memorial will have a permanent home in Johns Creek as part of the Veterans Memorial at Newtown Park. The Wall honors the more than three million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed forces during the Vietnam War and it bears the names of the more than 58,000 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam.

The replica Wall is like the original memorial and erected in a chevron-shape. The replica is constructed of powder-coated aluminum, supported by an aluminum frame, and is made up of 24 individual panels, each containing six columns of names.

The recently retired Wall replica had been on the road for more than 10 years and visited more than 250 cities across America, a program run by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the nonprofit organization which built The Wall in Washington, D.C.