JAMES RANDALL HOTTENROTH, 1LT, United States Air Force.

August 1, 1943 – October 15, 1967

By Werner Feldhaeusser

Published 2002.

I’m sure that many of you remember Jimmy Hottenroth, just as I did once again when I had the opportunity to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall, a 252-foot long replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.  It was at Fort Stewart, Georgia in early November of 2000.

 

Jimmy died in Vietnam.  A veteran at the opening ceremony said, “All gave some, some gave all.”  Jimmy gave all when the plane he was in crashed upon landing at an air base in Vietnam.

 

The Wall is a very quiet place.  Nobody talks much.  There are medals, patches, flowers, and other objects left by the visitors.  It’s been forty years now – but it was still an emotional experience.

 

Below on the left is the portion of Panel 28, on the East Wall, where Jimmy’s name is engraved in the ninth line down (6th full line down in the picture).  On the right is a “rubbing” of his name, which the volunteers manning the Wall make for visitors.

 

There are 58,217 (or 58,219 depending on the source) names engraved on the 74 separate panels composing the Moving Wall.  The tallest panels have 137 lines of names, while the shortest panel has only one line.  The names are listed in chronological order by the Vietnam veteran’s date of casualty, beginning with the first in 1959 to the last in 1975.

 

The Wall has been touring the country since its first appearance October 15, 1984 in Tyler, Texas and is funded solely by public contributions.

The above factual information is courtesy of The Frontline, a newspaper published by the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) and Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield Commander – Maj. Gen. Walter L. Sharp.

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