VIETNAM – WAR/PAIN/SORROW/MYSTERY/JUNGLE/SWAMP/MOUNTAINS/HOT
VIETNAM MEANS SOMETHING – DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME –TO ALL OF US
VIETNAM HAS A LASTING EFFECT OF ONE SORT OR ANOTHER ON ALL AMERICANS
VIETNAM CAN ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD BY THOSE OF US WHO WERE THERE –
AND WE DON'T UNDERSTAND IT

— A VIETNAM VET

Richard Arnold's life-sized sculpture, “Remembering,” stands at the
Vietnam Veterans' Memorial wall in Mobile, Alabama, a solitary
figure clenching the dog tag of a friend who wasn't fortunate enough to return home.

Richard, a member of the Vietnam Vets of America, created this pensive bronze as a reminder of the sacrifices of those who fought in the Vietnam War. Clad in a baseball cap, jeans, jungle boots and a military jacket, the former soldier wears a POW-MIA bracelet. He stands alone in front of the wall of names, no platform or base to set him apart from the flesh-and-blood viewers. In the soft twilight of creeping night some viewers have mistaken the sculpture for a real man, afraid to go closer, afraid to disturb his remembering.

A sister of a Vietnam veteran said of the Mobile sculpture: “I won't get tired of saying how much I love the Vietnam Vet memorial – not only for its heart, beauty, and simplicity, but because the artist captured the deepest bond of the soldier, his bond to life, not death. This soldier is my brother Dan, and he's Dan's heartbreak for lost buddies and Dan's memories of that war that left him empty. I am deeply moved by this work.”

While many other memorial sculptures depict soldiers in combat, Richard's masterwork reflects contemporary veterans looking back on what they and their fellow soldiers endured. Arnold donated the sculpture to the Lower Alabama Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Battleship Park, Mobile, Alabama.