Illinois

The entrance road to the site is lined with flags, the wind has them in full display, today !

The Illinois Vietnam Memorial

The eternal flame

Names of the lost are inscribed on the black granite walls, reminiscent of The Wall in D.C.

Each of the services songs is inscribed upon its particular wall

Medal of Honor awardees and POW/MIA's are honored

Once, again, Forrest Gump has been proven right. You never know what you're going to find. I was distraught when I had a computer problem that cost me any number of photos. These pics had been backed up, twice, and the whole system failed. The pics, mostly from Missouri and Illinois were just gone!

After trying everything I, and every computer person I know, tried to do to retrieve them failed, I finally realized that I had to return to these two states to retake the photos.

When I visited Springfield the first time, I had a lot of trouble tracking down the site and then had to wait a day or so for the rain to let up. As a result, when I visited the Oak Ridge Cemetery, where the memorial is situated, it was wet, cloudy, cold, dank and not particularly conducive to good photos.

As you can see from these pics, all that had changed! The sky was beautiful, the trees in color, the wind was blowing the flags and all in all I am just happier with these pics. So, thanks Forrest for putting it in to perspective!

The Illinois State Vietnam memorial is dedicated to the 3009 who were lost or are still missing. I have read many sites that all have differing numbers but this is the highest I have found so far. I have a call into the site and if they give me different stats, I will certainly report them here.

Each of the five walls represents a branch of service. These support an eternal flame which honors all and this create five courts for rest and reflection. The POW/MIA's are honored separately from the known lost.

The memorial was the project of two local vets who attended the dedication of The Wall In D.C. in 1982. They wanted to honor all their friends and all who had made the ultimate sacrifice in 'Nam. The untimely and unexpected death of one of them only served to make the other more determined to finish the memorial.

Located at 1500 Monument Ave, Springfield, IL 62702, The Oak Ridge Cemetery honors other wars and warriors and is also the resting place of  Abraham Lincoln. One could spend quite some time in this sacred place and still probably not absorb it all.

Illinois proved to have some very interesting Vietnam sites. Keep checking back to continue the journey. The next post will be at 9:00am on the 12th. See you then.