Georgia XXVI

Georgia lost some 1500+ (the 10th highest among the states.) I will honor three of them today.

Artis Wesley Anderson

PFC Artis Anderson was lot in a crossfire ambush that killed 12 and wounded an additional 19 soldiers. He was lost at Phuoc Tuy Province on May 17, 1966. Little other information seems to be available.

Gus Terry Allen

CPL Gus Allen was lost at Thua Thien. He was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor for his actions, but I could find no details of them. He was lost on July 23,1970, when hit by a mortar round.

Willie Frank Amos

PVT Willie Amos was lost at Quang Nam to "enemy fire..." He was lost on April 19, 1969.

It has been my habit lately to try to feature those from small, less well known, often overlooked places but due to some tech problems I have been unable to access many of my usual sites'. If/when these issues are corrected, I will return, at least most of the time to my usual practice.

All of these heroes were from Atlanta.

Next time, on September 5th, join me in Hawai'i' where I will tell a story that many have not heard. See you, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you have been 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 (now three times!) 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 from where you have traveled. I even got one from Ireland!

These generous submissions have help to expand the knowledge of how we remember and honor the men and women who served in or were lost in Vietnam.

If YOU have any such photos or knowledge about these memorials and sites not already here, I would love to know of them. Please send them along to the email address on the left side of this page and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all these listed here will encourage YOU to send along photos and join the group!

Georgia XXV

In New Spalding, Georgia there is a roadside park with a number of memorials present. The names of thirteen fallen from 'Nam are listed along side heroes from the Korean war. 

You can see my original past from the site here.

Today, I will highlight a few of the fallen honored here.

James Terry Coggins

PFC James Coggins was lost to hostile small arms fire om June 28th, 1968. As is so often the case, I can find nothing else about this hero. There are several sites on-line that give basic information, but in fact, they all seem to say the same thing. 

It just feels like they deserve more,  

Willie Gene Gaddy

PFC Willie Gaddy took his buddy's place as point on a patrol. He was dead within hours. The friend survived the war and remembers him daily. As usual, little detail available.

Charles Wayne Hall

PFC Charles Hall was lost at Binh Dinh on November 7, 1968. He was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from the government of South Vietnam, but I can, as always, find no details about this.

I think I realized today why I choose to only include three names in these posts. It just makes me too sad ( not to mention angry) to think that we know so little about young men and women who gave up their lives in this war.

And we just move on.

Next time on November 16th, after a Veterans Day tribute on the 11th, we will return to Hawai'i and additional faces to honor, so join me there, as usual 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 and join the group.

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.

Georgia XXIII

For some personal reason, I have not been able to travel as much as I would like. As a result I find myself resorting to spending time reviewing trips and photographs that I have taken in the past.

This is not always a bad thing. I often find things I may have over looked or forgotten to come back to for another look.

Today, I was looking over some pics from trips to Georgia. I have been there a couple of times and noticed some details in pics I think are worth sharing. As is often the case, these details are frequently in the faces I find in the memorials.

Long time readers know that faces are important to me. They bring home in a stark manner the trials and horrors of war.

These come from the haunting memorial at Roswell:

The original posts from Roswell may be seen here and here.

To see additional memorials from Georgia, or any other state, please click on a state name on then left side of this page. Please note that Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico have been added to the list of states.

Next time, on the 1st of July, we will return to Maryland, so, as always, join me there 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, and Molly from Florida have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served 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. Thanks, once again, to all who have contributed.

Georgia XXII

Back in 2017 I shared some pics from my visit to Ft. Gordon and the surrounding area. One of those smaller memorials was in Columbus, a community show of gratitude and love to those who served and were lost.

You can see that original post here.

In keeping with my ongoing, and seemingly growing, effort to highlight the faces seen on my journeys, the ones I call Faces of Remembrance, I returned today to that small, local, memorial and am sharing the faces from it that represent all who served.

These faces, as is the usual way, seem to be of no particular persons. Artist most often do this to avoid legal hassles down the road. Sometimes the faces or statues are a composite of several people, but I could find no indication that this was true in this case. Imagine if someday someone said "Hey, that's me and I want to be paid"or to have it taken down. What a mess that could be.

Next time, on November 5th, we will revisit Hawai'i', so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Georgia, 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!

Georgia XXI

While visiting Fort Gordon, Georgia a while back they had a mock up of The Wall on display. As you approached it there were a couple of smaller memorials there, too, all to Vietnam. You can check out a previous post here.

One of these had a number of faces on it and it was a bit different because all these faces were from photographs.

Most of the faces in my on going feature, Faces of Remembrance are carved in stone, or brass in some cases or molded in copper, etc. but, these are something you don't often see: taken from actual pictures.

I will feature a few of them today.

A single, unidentified solder, perhaps lost.

As always, I will include a picture of a dog when possible. I've mentioned before how many of our faithful companions were left behind in 'Nam to fend for themselves. As horrible as I think that is, at least we have changed that policy today. You can read a bit more about that here.

Next time, on July 3rd, we will revisit Illinois, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see additional memorials from Georgia, or any other state, please click 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.

Georgia XX

Those of you who have followed this site for any length of time know that I have a soft spot for dogs, especially those who stood by us in Nam.

This memorial in Alphretta, Georgia honors several from the area who gave their all in Nam, but also, honors our noble companions and friends.

But first, as you enter, you are greeted by this guy.

Before you even get to the memorial for our comrades you come upon this fellow still keeping sentry.

I may have told you before of the fate of these magnificent animals, but if not, I'll tell it again as I may never get over my anger.

When the end of the war came the powers that be decided that they were merely equipment and were left behind, abandoned, deserted. It is estimated that about 4,000 dogs were just estimated to be not worth our time. Some 200 are said to have made it home through one means or another.

I had a dog in Nam. She was not an Army dog, just a dog that belonged to my unit. From the first day I joined the group it become clear that she was mine. She would be with me in every situation that was possible. While she was not a trained sentry dog of any kind, you might find some night runners and CQs that might argue that after trying to rouse me for whatever reason.

I had planned to bring her home. I saved the two months pay it was going to cost, took her to animal husbandry in Saigon to get her cleared but it was not to be. About 10 days before I was to leave she had ten pups. I couldn't bring them all home and I could not take her away from them as they were too young to survive on their own. 

It nearly broke my heart but I passed her on to another guy in the unit and have trusted ever since that she was OK.

Click on the link below to read more about what happened to the dogs the brass decided were not worth the effort. Just another of their many screw ups in my opinion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/opinion/the-dogs-of-the-vietnam-war.html 

Next time, on the 25th, we will return to Maryland, so meet me there, as always, at 9:00am.

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

Georgia XIX

Regular readers will know that from time to time I post about the faces I have seen forever cast in the memorials I visit. I call this subset of photos Faces of Remembrance and today I will share some taken from Roswell, Georgia.

The memorial here can be said to be nearly all faces. The soldier reaches out to the child, perhaps his daughter, while the myriad of faces behind him look on.

Here is the complete memorial called the Faces of War Memorial:

The faces:

 

The Soldier

 

The Child

 

Another Soldier 

                                           An unknown woman

                                             One more soldier

Close examination of this memorial reveals fifty faces of soldiers and others all impacted by the war. At another time I will attempt to isolate some of them and being them to you.

Next time, on the 11th, I hope to have a Veterans Day post. Please join me then, on the 11th, at 11am.

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

Georgia XVIII

I have posted about the dignity Wall that stands outside the museum at Ft. Benning, Georgia previously on this site and you can find it elsewhere by clicking on Georgia on the left side of this page and then scrolling back. It is quite something.

It sits in an are called Vietnam Veterans Plaza.

In addition to the huge replica of The Wall here there are also a couple of other interesting markers. They are along the walkway to The Wall and today, I will share them with you.

The first of these is a tribute to all who served.

The next one attempts to tell the history of the war. there are things on here that contradict what others say, but, this is common.

 Again, additional history. this call the first two killed as having died in 1979, I always like to point out that the first soldier who died in 'Nam was killed in 1956, still others date the war to 1945 when an American official was killed by the Viet Minh. So it goes with history.

I think for the foreseeable future this will be the last post from Ft. Benning, I have exhausted  my pictures for now. Perhaps when the pandemic has passed I can get back.

Next time, on the 28th, we'll return to Hawai'i', so, meet me there, as always, at 9:00am.

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

Georgia XVII

Fort Benning, Georgia is the home to the Infantry Museum and Steve and I decided to visit while on base photographing other memorials.

It is a vast depository of artifacts commemorating the role of the Infantry in our history.

Along with the usual weaponry and other paraphernalia that one would expect, I found a few things that especially spoke to me.

I found this map interesting not only because of the unusual look but also the information given. Note that it dates the war from 1960 to1975. again, differences  span depending upon whom you ask, as I have noted many times on this site. Below the heading these is a timeline of sorts beginning in 1945 which is correct, but no mention of the first soldier being killed in 1956, a fact often mentioned here, but too often missing on other recounting of the war.

This simply speaks for itself.

This is just touching.

No comment needed.

The light was very poor in the museum, for photographic needs anyway, so many shots were just not useable here. If you get the chance the museum is well worth a visit.

Next time, on the 18th, we will return to Hawai'i', so join me there at 9:00am.

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

Alabama XVI

This is a repost of April 8. For some reason the pictures either disappeared or never posted, I am unsure which. Someone please let me know if you cannot see these three pictures.

I rolled into Cullman County, Alabama on a wet, rainy, dismal day. I have occasionally bragged on this site about how I have never been "weathered" out of a photo shot. I have been wet, cold, hot, knee deep in snow and all too frequently, miserable, but I always get my pics: I never know if I will ever get back to a particular location again.

Well, all that aside, this was a day that nearly broke my streak, just lousy. Then even after taking every precaution I could, I was not too happy with the resulting shots.

These are a couple that I think are OK.

Originally there was a mobile memorial that over time morphed into this one. The first memorial, 32 feet long, was constructed of painted plywood by group members of the VVA, in 1989 for that year's Veterans Day parade in downtown Birmingham.

Its popularity led the chapter to commission a new, more durable version of imported black granite. The 28-foot-long, 4-foot-tall, 5,880 pound monument is inscribed with the names of 1,209 Alabamians who died during the Vietnam War between 1963 and 1975.

As stated here on a number of occasions this number might be somewhat higher if the counting began with the death of the first soldier in 1956.

Next time, on the 13th, we will return to Georgia. Join me, as always, at 9:00am.

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

Georgia XVI

It surprised me to find that I had not posted these Faces of Remembrance pictures previously.

They are from the Georgia Vietnam Memorial found at the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Memorial Plaza adjacent to the Capitol building in Atlanta that I have featured elsewhere on this site.

The Faces of Remembrance effort on A Means to Heal is an attempt to tell our story through the eyes and faces of those depicted in the statues and memorials honoring them and our efforts in that far away place.

The faces, far too often, show fear, pain, disillusionment and sometimes a disconnection from humanity as seen, too often, in the Thousand Yard Stare.

So, what do we see here?

Here, perhaps, the acceptance that this is the price we pay.

The Nurse, I think, as seen far too much.

And, I know it is just a result of weathering, but this guy seems to be shedding a tear for his buddy or perhaps for us all.

Yeah, yeah, all of this is just my opinion and we all know what opinions are worth. Have a different view? Let me know in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you.

So, on the 14th we will take another trip to Idaho, so join me there at 9:00am.

To see other memorial from  Georgia, or any other state, please click on the state name on the left side of this page.

Georgia XV

The previous post from Georgia was from Griffin in Spaulding County. The park there has a number of memorials and two of them, at least, mention Vietnam.

In this first picture you see much of this beautiful spot, both memorials and the eternal flame in front of the memorial on the left.

This memorial honors the lost from both the Korean and Vietnam wars so one assumes that it was here first and the other added later.

Set just under a beautiful tree the memorial lists names form each conflict.

 These are the heroes honored here for all time.

To see the post about the other memorial here, please click on Georgia on the left side of this page and scroll back one post.

Next time, on the 11th, look for a special post about new findings about The Wall. Join me there at 11 minutes after 11am.

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