On May 22, 1968, Marine First Lieutenant David Westphall was killed in an ambush near Con Thien in Vietnam. He was twenty-eight years old. Back home on their ranch near Angel Fire, New Mexico, his parents, Dr. Victor "Doc" Westphall and his wife Jeanne, made a decision that would reshape how America remembers the Vietnam War: they would build a memorial to their son and his fallen comrades, using David's military life insurance to pay for it.
The country was still deep in the war, and a memorial to Vietnam veterans was not a popular idea. Undeterred, the Westphalls began construction in late summer 1968 on their ranch land, selling off most of their acreage to keep the project alive. Doc did much of the work himself. Disabled American Veterans later contributed funding, and architect Ted Luna designed the striking white chapel — gentle curves sweeping fifty feet toward the sky — that would become the memorial's heart.
The Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel was completed and dedicated in 1971, on the third anniversary of David's death. It was the first major memorial in the United States dedicated to Vietnam veterans, predating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., by more than a decade. The chapel overlooks the Moreno Valley below Wheeler Peak, and its doors have never been locked.
Over the years the site grew around the chapel. The Disabled American Veterans assumed joint ownership in 1982 and added a visitor center and museum; the Westphall Visitor Center was dedicated in 1986. In 2005 the memorial became a New Mexico state park, and today it is managed by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, recognized by Congress as a memorial of national significance.
Doc Westphall died in 2003 and Jeanne in 2004. They are interred together on the memorial grounds, beside the chapel they built from grief. Every year, thousands of visitors climb the hill in Angel Fire to stand before the white curves of the chapel — the place where two grieving parents, when their country would not yet mourn its soldiers, decided to mourn them first.
Planning a Red River getaway? Book your stay at the Claim Jumper A-Frame 6
