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Bruce Springsteen has written many heartfelt songs about the plight of American veterans, from 1984’s “Born in the USA” to 2005. “Devils and Dust”. But perhaps the most personal came in 2014 when he released “The Wall” in honor of his teenage friends Walter Cichon and Bart Haynes. Cichon was the frontman of Jersey bar group, the Grounds, and Haynes was the drummer for Springsteen’s first group, the Castiles.
“Bart and Walter were both killed in action in Vietnam when they were very, very young,” Springsteen told crowds in Charlotte, North Carolina, Time Warner Cable Arena on April 19, 2014, before a devastating interpretation of “The Wall”. “They were 19 at best. It was a huge, huge loss for our neighborhood, for our city, for that thing inside of you that somehow seems the best. [people] should have their chance.
Springsteen was inspired to write “The Wall” after visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in December 1997 while in Washington, DC, for the Kennedy Center Honors. He saw Cichon’s name on the wall and soon found himself sitting next to Robert McNamara at the Kennedy Center. The former Secretary of Defense played a huge role in sending people like Cichon to Vietnam in the first place.
“Cigarettes and a bottle of beer, that poem I wrote for you,” Springsteen wrote. “That black stone and those hard tears are all I have left of you / I remember you in your navy uniform laughing, laughing at your departure party / I read Robert McNamara says he was sorry. “
As we remember brave Americans like Cichon and Haynes on Veterans Day, check out Springsteen’s performance of Charlotte’s “The Wall” in 2014.
“For any of our veterans out there,” he told the crowd. “Not just Vietnam, but Iraq, Afghanistan. It’s a short prayer for my country. “
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