TERRE HAUTE —
Two Vigo County veterans are working to raise $20,000 in private funds to move a Vietnam War memorial from the back side of the county courthouse to the front lawn, which houses the Vigo County Veterans Memorial Plaza.
“We need to get that monument closer to the Veterans Memorial Plaza so it can be part of it,” said Vigo County Commissioner Paul Mason. “Right now we have a Vietnam memorial that stands by itself.
“When people walk up to see the Veterans Memorial Plaza, sometimes they don’t realize there is a Vietnam War memorial there also,” Mason said. “I feel sometimes as a Vietnam veteran, and I think some other veterans feel the same way, that maybe we came home and maybe we were forgotten.
“I feel in some respects that is where the Vietnam memorial is, just over there by itself,” Mason said, “and I don’t want it to be forgotten.”
The Veterans Memorial Plaza, which faces Third Street on the courthouse’s north side, was dedicated May 30, 2003, to honor all veterans.
The Vietnam Memorial was not moved, Mason said, over concerns its limestone walls could crack. Mason said he has recently been in contact with an Illinois firm that specializes in moving such memorials.
Mason served as a sergeant the U.S. Army from May 1968 to May 1970. Mason said he volunteered for the military service and was stationed in Vietnam in 1968 in an area around Tan Son Nhut Air Base, near Saigon.
He is working with another Vietnam veteran, Patrick R. Ralston, vice president of business and economic development, government relations at First Financial Bank in Terre Haute. The idea is to move the memorial in a straight line, from its current location facing Ohio Street on the southwestern lawn of the Vigo County Courthouse to the northwestern corner of the courthouse lawn in the Veterans Memorial Plaza.
“We have talked about this for a couple of years. It is just sitting out there by itself and kinda forgotten. We felt it important to be a part of the other memorials there,” Ralston said. “It is becoming a forgotten war and it should not be that way.”
Ralston said he was part of a committee that worked to erect the current Vietnam Memorial. A ground breaking ceremony for the memorial was held June 3, 1988. The memorial is a 10-foot tall, 24-foot long limestone monument designed by Terre Haute native Robert Crotty Jr., who served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division. It portrays an American solider and the outline of Vietnam.
A bronze plate was attached to the memorial and dedicated May 27, 1996, to honor and list the names of 27 men from Vigo County who gave their lives from 1965 to 1972.
The United States deployed combat units in Vietnam in 1965 and remained until a U.S. pullout in August 1973. The war was fought between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, known as North Vietnam, and the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam, known as South Vietnam.
Despite a peace treaty in 1973, fighting continued until August 1975, with the fall of Saigon in South Vietnam resulting in the unification of Vietnam under the North communist government. More than 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in the war.
Mason has been trying to get the memorial moved for several years. In 2008, a much more ambitious project was conceived to raise $200,000 to create an elaborate new Vietnam memorial with a “V” shaped sidewalk and a three-sided granite fountain.
“It became a dream, and in the end it was too costly,” Mason said.
Now, Ralston and Mason are approaching veteran groups and others for what Mason called a much more realistic project which includes constructing a new foundation and moving the existing memorial.
Pete Sparrow, commander of American Legion Post No. 104, said the Legion last week voted to donate $2,000 to the project. “I think it is a wonderful idea and it should be displayed with the rest of the veteran memorials. I hope they get it done,” said Sparrow, who also served in Vietnam in 1969. He served three years in active duty and 34 years in Air National Guard.
Sparrow said he plans to give the funds to the Wabash Valley Community Foundation Inc. this week. The foundation is handling all money raised for the moving, Mason said.
Donations to move the Vietnam Memorial can be sent to the Wabash Valley Community Foundation, 219 Ohio Blvd., Terre Haute, IN, 47803. Mark contributions for the Vietnam War Memorial Fund.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@
tribstar.com.
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Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza A move in consideration: Two Vigo County veterans, Paul Mason and Patrick Ralston, are working to raise $20,000 in private funds to move a Vietnam War memorial from the back side of the county courthouse to the front lawn, which houses the Vigo County Veterans Memorial Plaza.
Discussion
Group wants war memorial moved
Vietnam Memorial not near others at courthouse
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