Pennsylvania XXV

Returning from a trip to the Shanksville 911 memorial site, I stopped in Bedford, Pa to grab a bite. While sitting in the restaurant I notices a sign on the wall that seemed to be about a Vietnam memorial. It was announcing the dedication of an addition of a statue to the existing memorial later in the year.

Intrigued, I looked up where the existing memorial was located and found that it was only a couple of blocks away.

It sits in Veterans Grove on the grounds of the Bedford County Court House among a number of other memorials.

Located on the corner of Juliana and  Penn Streets it is easy to find.

From the street side the view is this statement of honor and support for all who served.

The reverse lists the 21 from Bedford County lost to our efforts in 'Nam.

 The brick field behind is nearly full of dedication bricks to various individuals who served.

The circle at the base of the "V" at the end of the brick field will eventually be the resting place of a statue of the Robert Hartsock, the only military dog handler to ever be a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

The statue will debut on March 28th, 6 to 9pm at the Bedford Elks and will be placed at a later date.

If you are interested call Dennis Tice at 814-623-1771 for more details.

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

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

New Jersey VII

On a number of occasions I have mentioned that I have never missed a photo due to the weather and have complained that I have been wet many times, stood in the Sonoran Desert in 117 degree heat and in snow up to my knees in Carson City, Nevada. With that being said, these shots came the closest to not happening due to mother nature. The day was miserable, cold and raining and the memorial was extremely difficult to locate. I had a general description of where is should be, but all I could find was a restaurant.

Being wet and cold, I was about to throw in the towel I finally went into the place and asked about it, thinking that either I had the wrong location, which happens more often than you might imagine or that the memorial had been moved to a new spot which happens sometimes, too.

Well, the place was not actually open but the let me in and were very nice, explaining that this was not a new request for them and showed me to a back window and there, seemingly lost,  was the memorial, out behind the place.

It stands at the entrance to a larger veterans memorial site and welcomes those that visit Veterans Island. which I have also heard called Veterans Grove.the grove boast many memorials to different wars, heroes and others, like, first responders, but it was just too miserable a day to go exploring.

The island there, along the Cooper River has been dedicated to vets since the 80's and this memorial marking the names of those lost in 'Nam was added at a later date.

It, as you can see, is as simple and straight forward as any memorial, yet standing there in the rain, it seemed to weep for those honored here.

The memorial is located at the entrance to Veterans Island at North Park Drive, Cooper River Park, Pennsauken, N.J.

Next time, on the 13th, we will visit New Mexico, once again, so, as always, join me there at 9:00am.

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