ODESSA, Texas — Memorial Day. It's a day about remembering all of those who have served our country. Music City Mall hosted Fallen Heroes and a ceremony to honor those very veterans. Texas veterans in particular.
This idea for the wall started with one man.
"There was a gentleman that made a point to start taking pictures of all these veterans and put them on ceramics. Well the gentleman got up in age and he turned it over to us," Robert Marquez, the man who took over the wall and moves it from city to city across the state.
It's an exhibit and ceremony that's become a tradition. In fact, Marquez said that he's been moving this wall around the state for about four years now. The wall currently honors over 600 Texas veterans.
"So what we do now is we put 647 veterans from 9/11 all the way to the present day. So hopefully it won't grow anymore, but there for a while it was outrageous," Marquez said.
647 veterans. That was a number that shocked Marquez when he first heard it, but he knows that we wouldn't be here without them.
"This is just a tribute to them and thank them for what they did for us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Memorial Day is all about this, it’s about acknowledging the veterans that passed away," Marquez said.
Even though Marquez has been doing this for a while now all over the state, it's a job he wouldn't change.
"It’s worth the trip. It’s hectic sometimes, but sometimes it’s because we’re all, most of us are Vietnam veterans and we’re all up getting in age and it’s getting harder and harder to do this but it’s a sacrifice that’s worth it," Marquez said.
Marquez said that he's taken the wall all over west Texas. This includes Andrews, Marfa, Alpine, El Paso, and now Odessa. However, the stop in Odessa this year was brief. It was only one day, and it was also the last stop on the trip.