As a veteran, it is difficult to speak of The Wall without being gripped by emotion. The Wall serves as a portal to another place in time, a place where brothers at arms can remember and grieve, where women revisit the husbands or fathers they loved and lost, where children can be introduced to grandfathers they never knew. The black granite walls heal, teach and mourn but most of all they remember. Why is that so important? Veterans know a soldier is never truly dead until he is forgotten.