BROOKLYN, IOWA — Nearly 60,000 names etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington honor Americans who died during the Vietnam War. Iowans now have a chance to see those names up close after a traveling replica arrived in Brooklyn.

The three-quarter-scale replica, known as The Wall That Heals, travels to communities across the United States. It gives people who cannot travel to Washington an opportunity to pay their respects and find the names of loved ones who died in the war.

The visit can be especially emotional for Vietnam veterans and the families of those who died. Organizers said many veterans returned home to hostility and felt discouraged from openly acknowledging their service.

“You have to understand these Vietnam Veterans came home to insults, jeers,” said Sandy Nugent, site manager for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. “They were told to hide their uniforms, don’t put their service on their resume because they’d never get a job. So, will you imagine they’ve held that in for fifty years. So, this wall to come into town they finally get to feel again.”

Nugent said visits to the wall can lead to conversations some families have waited decades to have.

“We call it the wall magic and really amazing things happen at the wall,” Nugent said. “We hear from so many family members; ‘my dad or my grandad never spoke about the war and after visiting the wall we were up until 2, 3 am in the morning’. That is powerful and it’s a part of that veteran’s healing.”

Local organizers said the Brooklyn community helped make the wall’s visit meaningful, including by arranging special guests and commemorative events.

“It wasn’t like today when soldiers come back and you get the ‘thank you for your service,’” said Tom May, co-chairman of Brooklyn Wall That Heals. “In fact back then there was even times when the airports had to route people out a different direction if they were in uniforms.”

Organizers planned a ceremony for 6 p.m. Thursday at the BGM High School football field. Capt. William Albracht, whom May described as “the youngest Captain in Vietnam,” was scheduled to deliver the keynote address.

To learn more about visiting the wall in Brooklyn be sure to visit The Wall that Heals website.