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[Bill Shugarts] Now you watch. The name will come alive.
(sound of pencil tracing)
[narrator] More than 58,000 names are on the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Vietnam Vet
Bill Shugarts volunteers here five days a month.
[Bill Shugarts] If you need a name, we can help you find that too.
[John Canada] I appreciate the fact that they're out here
day and night to help folks like us know and understand this wall.
[Bill Shugarts] The human part of it is the letters...
[narrator] Shugarts helps gather letters
and other tributes left at the wall...
all archived by the National Park Service.
[Bill] The biggest thing that's been left there
which was years ago was a motorcycle,
a custom made motorcycle.
[narrator] His experiences led Shugarts to start a military
ministry for deployed members of his church,
Christ United Methodist in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
Co-chairman Bob Rositzke says today people are better
at putting politics aside to support U.S. troops.
[Bob Rositzke] I had three tours to Vietnam.
When we came home, we weren't that welcome.
People are behind the troops now.
[woman] We put something in from the kids in the Sunday School make.
[narrator] Geoffrey Ballou was most touched by the cards
from children while he was serving in Iraq.
[Geoffrey Ballou] Very touching. Very heartwarming
to get those things.
I, I kept them all and brought them back with me.
(laughs) Everything I got from the kids.
[narrator] Church members post pictures, pray for each soldier
and reach out to members' families, like Laura Ballou.
[Laura Ballou] They would e-mail me and just to say,
hello, how are you.
Uh, do you need anything?
[narrator] Shugarts wants the sacrifices of U.S.
soldiers to never be forgotten.
[Bill] These guys never expected to be on a memorial
or have their name on a memorial.
All of us, when we serve, we were just doing our jobs.