Veterans

Most drives around the Enchanted Circle are about the scenery, and the scenery earns it: an 84-mile loop around Wheeler Peak, at 13,161 feet the tallest mountain in New Mexico, linking Taos, Questa, Red River, Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. But on a hillside above Angel Fire, overlooking the Moreno Valley, the Circle holds something quieter than a ski slope or a mining camp. It holds the first major memorial built in the United States to honor Vietnam War veterans.

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.

For four decades, Memorial Day weekend meant one thing in Red River: thunder. The Red River Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally — one of the oldest in the nation — drew tens of thousands of bikers to Main Street and kicked off the town's summer season with a roar.