Wisconsin XIV

Some years ago I wrote about the Native American memorial in Neelsville and how one of the information plaques refers to "The Forgotten Warrior." Wisconsin (one of the first states to welcome Lao Hmong immigrants) distinguishes itself by having a memorial to another group that few know about and get, perhaps, even less credit than Native Americans.

In Deland Park in Sheboygan, just on the shores of Lake Michigan, resting in quiet dignity is a memorial to the Lao-Hmong. These fearless warriors fought throughout Laos, in The Secret War, to aid and ultimately protect Americans fighting in 'Nam. Some were just boys barely as tall as their weapons. It is said that one in five men and boys were lost, 20% of the population. Imagine if one in five American soldiers had been lost, let alone 20% of the population!

So, today, I am going to share a few pictures of the memorial and in a future post I will feature the deeper story.

The outside of the memorial is decorated with these mosaic likenesses of those who participated in the war, some military and some civilian.

I have been unable to track down if these are specific people or merely representations of the population. I will. as have done so often in the past, ask for your assistance. If you know anything, please contact me at the email on the left side of this page.

This is one of the many educational panels I mentioned earlier in this post. It is as true today as it was when the vet first said it.

Each of us has his own story and if every single one is not collected and known then the story will always be incomplete. It makes you wonder how much we will never know. My guess? Inconceivably more than we do.

In a future post I will share more of the story of these unknown and mostly unheralded heroes. I recently read that there is another memorial further north in Wisconsin, maybe I'll get there one day.

Next time, on the 25th, we will revisit Arizona, so join me there at 9:00am.

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

I will ask, as I do at the end of nearly every post now, for anyone who has pictures of Vietnam memorials not seen here to please send them to me. I will give you full photo credit for the pic and any information about it you may know. Check your state, or anywhere you may have visited, from the list at the left, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks!