A moving tribute

As Joyce Warren helped erect the Vietnam Veterans Memorial traveling tribute panels, she waited for one particular panel and one particular name.

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Panel 6E came.

John O. Warren's name was there, on line 126, just below her knee.

"That panel is mine," she yelled as volunteers pulled Panel 6E from the truck to be assembled.

Warren slowly ran her fingers over the name even before it left the truck as if she was absorbing some of her late husband. As the panel was being fixed in place, she touchedthe name of her husband of 12 years a few more times.

Sgt. First Class John O. Warren was a career Army man with 14 years in when he was sent with a military advisory team to an area near Bien Hoa, Vietnam, in 1970. He was the only soldier manning the radio on Dec. 16, 1970, when an 80-millimeter round hit the shack, killing him instantly, Warren said.

Many veterans returned from the war with terrible injuries or afflictions. Warren saw the instantaneous death of her husband as God's way of keeping him from suffering like that, she said.

Shortly after their marriage, John told his wife, he had a feeling he would not live past the age of Christ. He was just 22 at the time, and the newlyweds laughed it off. But, two days after his death - as word reached his wife - she knew his prediction was true: John turned 33, Christ's age at the crucifixion, only four months earlier.

Remembrance of Women on the Wall

Keynote speaker: Brig. Gen. Janet E.A. Hicks, commanding general, U.S.A. Signal Center, Fort Gordon

When: 10 a.m. today

Where: Columbia County fairgrounds on Columbia Road

Cost: Free

Closing Ceremonies

Keynote speaker: Ben Harbin, Georgia State Congressman, District 113

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Columbia County fairgrounds on Columbia Road

Cost: Free

Now, with two children and three grandchildren, Warren visits the traveling tribute anytime it comes within driving distance, she said.

"It is like visiting his grave, which I cannot do," Warren said.

John is buried in Idaho next to his parents.

Warren often helps set up her husband's panel, but has never been emotionally able to help take it down.

"It is like attending the funeral all over again," she said.

Needless to say, Warren does not remember much about Christmas 1970. The holiday season is still difficult for the Warren family despite the more than 30 years that have passed.

"That day, though it is a joyous occasion, for my son and I both, a dark cloud comes over that day," Warren said.

Warren feels lucky in the sense that she knows where her husband is and how he met his fate. So many relatives of POWs and MIAs still have no idea what happened to their loved ones. Warren is determined to help and support those people through the Vietnam Veterans of America, where she is newsletter co-editor for the local chapter and state council secretary.

Warren said she hoped she would be able to take her husband's panel down as she set it in place Thursday morning.

"Wherever this wall is is hallowed ground," she said.

The tribute is open 24 hours a day through Monday morning, when it will be dismantled by volunteers, at the Columbia County fairgrounds on Columbia Road across from Patriots Park.