Florida X

I had the most unfortunate experience of being stranded in Florida last winter while the mid-Atlantic region got hammered with a major snow storm. Sad, but true. I was forced to remain in sunny, warm Florida longer than I had planned.

In an attempt to make the best of a bad situation, I decided to head to Key West ( I know, but somebody had to do it, right?) I had seen pictures of what appeared to be a small Vietnam memorial in the sand and decided I would check it out.

Well, it turned out that Key West had dedicated a brand new expansion of that small memorial just a couple of months before I was stranded. It is really quite impressive and I couldn't be happier that I ended up deciding to go.

Today, I will show you only the original memorial and save the newer additions for future, probably several, posts.

This is the memorial as you approach from the nearby parking lot off the main road. It mostly lists the names of supporters and contributors to the overall project.

The memorial from the other side listing the fallen and honoring all. This is the view that I had seen elsewhere and expected to find once in Key West.

The Honor Roll list all that made the ultimate sacrifice in 'Nam.

The list continues on the opposite side with one soldier standing out on a separate plaque.

Hard to see in the above picture, here is the marking above the plaque. I have never seen anything like this before in my visits to hundreds and hundreds of Vietnam memorials across the country.

I looked up Pvt. Recupero and was dismayed to find virtually nothing except that he was killed by small arms fire on April 24th, 1966. I think this is sad.

I wi8ll write lots more about Key West in the future, there is a lot to see here.

Next time,on the 28th, we will take another trip to Maine, so join me there.as usual, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Florida, or any other state, click the state name on the left side of this page.