COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Friday at the National Infantry Museum there will be a dedication ceremony for the replica Vietnam Wall. 

That ceremony which starts at 9:30 a.m. is expected to draw veterans from across the Army and throughout the Chattahoochee Valley. 

The keynote speak for the dedication with be retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey. He did four combat tours in Vietnam with the 82^nd Airborne. 

That wall has traveled to more than 200 cities for nearly two decades before it found a permanent home at the National Infantry Museum in 2014. 

Just outside the Fort Moore gates, it is the largest replica of the memorial that sits on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was commissioned by Dignity Memorial, which presented it to the National Infantry Museum Foundation.

But the replica wall did not fare well under the Georgia sun. It was not made of stone and faded badly. An acrylic version was placed over it so the names could be clearly seen.

Today –- with the help of the State of Georgia – a $1 million upgrade has been finished. All of the panels are now made of Georgia granite and the names of the more than 58,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen lost in the Vietnam War are etched in that stone. 

The wall has great significance to those who served. 

“I guess I have some survivor guilt,” said Dr. Carl Savory a Vietnam veteran and graduate of West Point’s Class of 1967 .  “I have 30 classmates on the wall, three of which were my roommates.  So, it brings back a lot of memories, and I still see them the way they were when we graduated  in 1967.  Still you  visualize those individuals as they were then.” 

Retired Army Col. Greg Camp, a Vietnam veteran, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Class a year after Savory.

“I’ve got 20 classmates names here,  but one of his classmates was the platoon leader that I replaced when he was killed,” Camp said. “So, it ties us all together across generations. And it’s way, way, way beyond our West Point roots. You know, there’s 50 names on here of men who were in the battalion that I was with. And the roots that that continue to develop as you learn things in casual conversations with people that you had no idea.” 

Part of the restoration work was to etch the names in granite, just as they are at the memorial in Washington. That’s important, Camp said.

“And the names were painted on there and you could see them clearly, but you couldn’t rub them,” he said. “You couldn’t feel it.  I can only imagine, you know, when you’re reading by Braille, you know how  the tips of your fingers bring life to words.  The tips of your fingers bring these folks sort of to life when when you  can rub their names.” 

And for those who served and those connected to those who served and died, the wall is all about the names etched on it.

“You know, Maya Lin, was the designer of this?”  It was a contest, really.  ” Savory said. “And she designed it.  And she said one of her quotes is that the names are the memorial.  And she was absolutely right. The wall represents the names are the memorial itself. They’re just represented on the wall.”