Veterans Memorial Park of Pensacola is seeking volunteers for a week-long Reading of the Names at The Wall South in observance of Memorial Day. The 58,318 names of servicemen and women whose lives were lost in the Vietnam War will be read by volunteers beginning Sunday at 1 p.m. with opening remarks by Paul Entrekin, president of the Veterans Memorial Park of Pensacola’s board of directors, who will begin the solemn process of reading each name aloud.
Sunday’s volunteer roster is full with 150 people signed up to read from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Reading of the Names will continue through May 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, and there are many time slots available requiring additional volunteers.
Volunteer registration is open to everyone and being conducted online at wsre.org/names.
Each volunteer will receive a list of names that will take approximately two minutes to read. The final list will be recited during the park’s Memorial Day ceremony at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 28.
This Reading of the Names has been coordinated by WSRE as the culminating event of the public television station’s community engagement activities surrounding last fall’s PBS documentary, “The Vietnam War.” For more information, call 484-1200.
