By Austin Arceo
TERRE HAUTE — Vietnam War veterans Mike Huddleson and Paul Mason took on a project that hit especially close to home.
The two helped raise money for benches that will serve as tributes to Mark Houston, Leslie McKillop, Mike Ash and Mike Chaney, four Vietnam veterans who died while serving and who had attended the same high school as Huddleson and Mason. The benches will be dedicated at a 1 p.m. ceremony Saturday on the lawn of the Vigo County Courthouse.
Huddleson helped raise money for a bench that commemorates Houston and McKillop, who were all members of the Garfield High School class of 1967.
“I’m an old Vietnam veteran, too, so I think they deserve to be remembered,” Huddleson said.
He and his wife, Helen, raised money from the school’s 1967 graduating class, Helen Huddleson said.
Mason, also a Vigo County commissioner, raised the money for the bench honoring Ash and Chaney, who were classmates of his in Garfield, class of 1966.
The idea for the benches came about because the county’s Vietnam memorial is distanced from the Veterans Memorial Plaza, which lacks reference to the veterans from the war, Mason said.
The Vietnam memorial faces Ohio Street south of the courthouse, while the plaza memorials face Third Street east of the courthouse.
“I think this is just an honor for us just to show appreciation for our classmates that gave their lives for our country, for ourselves so we can live in freedom,” Mason said of the tribute, “and this is just a small token of what we can do for them.”
Helen Huddleson said the bench for Houston and McKillop cost $1,930. The bench for Ash and Chaney cost $1,800, Mason said.
In case of rain, the dedication will be moved to the Vigo County Superior Court Division 5 courtroom in the courthouse, Helen Huddleson said.
The county’s Vietnam memorial lists 27 Vigo County men who died in the Republic of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1972. The four men to be honored are among those listed.
The memorial lists Ash and Chaney as dying in 1968. McKillop died in 1969, while Houston died in 1971.
Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.
