Louisiana VIII

In what I believe was my very first post from Louisiana, I commented that the state seemed to have no official memorial but, that there were two in New Orleans.

That was June 11, 2012. Now, I just read that an official Louisiana State Memorial, honoring all 885 lost, was dedicated on Saturday March 29,2025: the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Congratulations Louisiana.

Until I can get back to Louisiana, I will continue to try to honor those lost or who served in any way that I can.

One of the very first pictures I ever took in the state was not far from the airport at Dignity Memorial Gardens and seems to honor a number of Air Force vets who were captured. (This is one of the times I hope to hear from someone more knowledgeable that I am as I cannot track down information on the site.)

These names are crops from the 35 names listed here. Some are so weathered that they hard to read.

 

 

These photos were taken from the Wall of Faces, part of VVMF's effort to gather a face for every name on The Wall. You can see the thousands more they have collected here.

Next time, on the 26th of April, we will venture, again, to  Maryland, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Kentucky VIII

As you might guess, when I speak about this project I am always asked "which one is your favorite?"

I always explain that I love them all and that the "one I am standing in front of..." is always foremost in my mind.

Having said that, I will always mention the Kentucky memorial in Frankfort. It is just spectacular in its carefully thought out design and purpose. 

You can read about more of this here in my original post from Kentucky.

In keeping with my long term goal of honoring as many as I can, today, these names are from the plaza awaiting the passing of the shadow from the gnomon to touch, honor, and remember them: a reminder to us all.

These names were taken from the plaza in Frankfort and the photos are from Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall of Faces.

You can check out all the photos at:

https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces

Next time, on the 21st of April, we will venture, again, to Louisiana, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Illinois XVIII

It is with a somewhat heavy heart that I return to Havana, Illinois today.

I had hoped to identify each of these vets and perhaps share a bit about them.

As you can see in the second picture, his name is impossible to read and after quite a bit of searching, I was able to track down the actual window and the name of the store featuring him and so many others.

I called only to discover that the business no longer exists.

As always, I will ask if any of you readers can positively identify him, I would love to honor his memory here. Please let me know at the email on the left side of this page 

This window is unique in my travels and experience. You can read more about it in a previous post that you can see here.

I am posting this picture again because I found out that he is actually the only hero from Havana lost in Nam. Killed, as you will note, in Cambodia: a place where we denied we were for many years.

Next time, on the 16th of April, we will venture, once again to Kentucky so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Ireland IV

The last time I wrote about Ireland and her participation in the Vietnam war, I posted a picture of the memorial in Ennis, Ireland to the 30 lost Irish citizens. (Now, 32)

You can see that post here to see the full memorial.

 

I got to looking at and thinking about the images along the top of that memorial and had a hard time figuring out just what the meant or represented. 

 

Further reading and some better pictures led me to some conclusions that I freely admit are mine and may be incorrect. (I wrote to the photographer for some clarification but have not heard back from him at this time. If I do I will certainly update here,) 

There are five images on the front of the memorial and here is what I think they mean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first shows a man, head in his hand, in apparent despair, a feeling not unknown in Ireland.

 

 

The second shows him having made a difficult decision. Like so many millions of Irish, he is leaving his home, possibly never to return.

Next, shows his passage to a new world. 

Fourth, he arrives will many others to his new home.

Finally, he fights for his new country.

Tell me what you think!

I have written before about the Irish contributions to our various wars,

From the Revolutionary war through the present day. You can see some of that information at the above link.

Next time, on the 11th of April, I hope to have some more faces from Havana, Illinois. Join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Hawai'i VII

Beautiful Hawai'i'. I managed during this journey to visit our 50th state on two different occasions.

Once to visit the state Vietnam memorial in Oahu and the second time to attend the dedication of a new memorial at the cemetery at The Punchbowl.

Today, I want to revert to the state memorial which seemed to take a back seat to the Punchbowl here and highlight just a couple of names from it.

There are 276 names etched here on individual blocks and today, I will honor just three.

 

These three, for now, must represent the total. I am sure that at some point I may feature a few more but until then these must suffice: heroes all.

Next time, on the 6th of April, I hope to highlight a few of the features from the memorial in Ennis, Ireland. Join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Georgia XXIV

I had hoped today to interrupt my normal sequencing to repost an interesting article I came across about the evacuation of Saigon.

50 years ago on Saturday we all saw the famous picture of the helicopter on the roof of the American Embassy: people lined up trying to escape from the mayhem, the fall of Saigon and the end of our efforts in that far away place.

But, permission from the site I saw it on on has not arrived. Perhaps it never will. If it does not, I will tell the story at a later date, but I would like to hold out hope.

So, I will proceed with a post honoring three from Georgia who gave all for our efforts and the Vietnamese people,

These brisks were found, among others at the Manchester Mill and Veterans Park on Callaway Street. 

These are from a small group of those who were lost. You can see my original post here.

Next time, on the 1st of April (no fooling) I hope to highlight a few of the names from the beautiful memorial on Oahu in Hawai'i.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia and Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and now Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Florida XXVII

I am excited today to take you back to Florida.

 

Excited for two reasons: 1. because I have been made aware of a remarkable site not far from Orlando and

                                        2. because, once again, you have answered my call for contributions.

Cpl. Larry E. Smedley was a 19 year old Marine on patrol with six others men. They fell into an ambush. After taking out a machine gun nest and being mortally wounded, Cpl. Smedley was awarded the Medal of Honor. In addition, his fellow veterans have created this museum in his honor.

You can read a bit of his story below:

 

This is just the beginning of this story. I will be writing about this site for some time I am sure, there is so much to see.

For now, be sure to check back on the 27th to return to Georgia, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia and Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and now Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Thanks, once again, to all Peg and Ray and all who have contributed.