They may be gone, but a group of Casper veterans are working to make sure those that gave their lives in the Vietnam War remain in the public's conscience.

Veterans with the Casper Memorial Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9439 announced Saturday that they will be bringing a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to Casper in 2008.

The group is looking for as many as 100 volunteers to staff the memorial 24 hours a day. The replica, titled "The Wall That Heals," will be placed at Fort Caspar from Sept. 11-14, 2008.

Ron Steffensmeier with the VFW made the announcement at a windswept Veterans Park downtown, standing in front of the Wyoming Association of Vietnam Veterans sign that leads visitors into the park.

The wall, which stretches nearly 250 feet, and an accompanying information center about the Vietnam war, last came to Casper in 1999 and drew nearly 20,000 visitors, Steffensmeier said in prepared remarks.

"Hopefully, while the wall is here, it can truly become 'The Wall That Heals,' Steffensmeier said in his remarks.

Steffensmeier said he will encourage schools to visit the wall and an interactive center that travels with the exhibit in an effort to get hands-on lessons about the conflict that involved American troops for a decade and claimed the lives of more than 47,000 American military personnel.

Of those, 138 Wyoming service members were killed in the war, Steffensmeier said.

"The biggest thing is, the majority of people never get a chance to go to Washington, D.C. and see this. This is part of the healing process for a lot of (people)," Steffensmeier, a member of the Air Force who served in Thailand in 1969-70, said in an interview following his prepared statement.

That the exhibit will be here on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil is especially poignant, said Steffensmeier, who estimated it will cost $10,000 to bring the wall to Casper.

Ernie Blackford, commander of the VFW post and a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam in 1966-67, remembers when the wall came to Casper in July 1999.

"It was very moving," he said. "I didn't know what to expect … just being around it and looking at the names is just awesome."

Blackford said the wall may help the long healing process for those who served in Vietnam and returned to an often hostile homecoming.

"It's going to let them know the sacrifices they made," Steffensmeier said. "A lot of people that are still hurting today - maybe this will help."