Maryland XLIV

I had an idea a few years back that I would like to photograph the Maryland Vietnam Memorial from the air.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this as I knew it would be quite expensive. The desire finally won out, I rented a helicopter and made the trip and took the pictures.

At the time I was also working on the print version of this site (also called A Means to Heal) and included some of those shots within its pages. And completely forgot to share them here.

So, today, a few shots from the air over Baltimore, Maryland,

 

and a few others from within the site.

In the beginning there was an eternal flame here, but it has failed and seemingly cannot be repaired.

Each of the panels has names of the lost or missing inscribed upon it alphabetically, by month.

It shocked me when I saw the pics as it had not occurred to me that this is essentially a stone circle: calling to my Celtic roots!

The memorial is located at the foot of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, (formerly the Hanover Street Bridge) just off route 95 in Baltimore in Middle Branch Park on Waterview Avenue.

Next time, on November 24th, we will return to North Carolina, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

Delaware

 ***Note: I have no idea why the last post, Veterans Day 2024 posted as it did. I attempted several times to correct the incorrect print alignment, but could not fix it. In the view I see as I am writing, it is perfect, but the end result, how it appears on the actual site is faulty. If you have any suggestions, I would live to hear them!

 

So, Veterans Day is past and on to the promised post from Delaware.

On my last visit to "The first State" I had read or been told about a memorial at a local VFW. I was able to track it down and it is is impressive for what I often find at these places. (usually a nice plaque or similar.)  

Lots and lots of names but for the life of me  could find no indication that it was a Vietnam memorial. No particular war was singled out but there wee too many names for some of them not to be of those lost in 'Nam.

As you can see there are many names listed here on all sides of the monolith and also special plaques along the brick walls. If you are from this area and know anything more about this site, I would love to hear from you and update this with additional information.

The memorial is located at: 4941 Wheatleys Pond Rd, Smyrna, DE

Next time, on November 19th, we will return to Maryland, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

Veterans Day 2024

I know that I promised a post from Delaware for today, but opted, instead, to honor veterans Day a bit early. This will post at 11:11 am. to honor the signing of the Armistice ending WWI. November 11th was originally called Armistice Day, honoring that momentous event.

Veterans Day honors ALL WHO SERVED no matter when or where. Confusion still seems to exist concerning this. I am not sure why but it does. So, once again, Veterans Day honors all, Memorial Day honors those who paid the highest price for their country and Armed forces Day honors all who are serving.

A Means to Heal actually attempts to both honor those who served and those who were lost. Many memorials around the country honor the lost and those still MIA but, over the years more and more sites go out of their way to honor all who served. If you browse this site (and I hope you do) you will find many memorials that actually do both. 

I try each year to come up with something fitting to pay tribute to all who served. 

Each year The Department of Veterans Affairs creates a new poster honoring Veterans.

Below is this years rendering. I could no better than this.

By the way, if you go to the Department of Veterans Affairs you can see the posters going back many years.

WWW.VA.gov

 

Next time, on November 14th, we will return to Delaware as previously promised, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

California XLIII

As Veterans Day approaches I want to feature a few of those highly deserving of the honor of being called veterans. 

These following pictures are from the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. They are POWs who were freed at the end of the war. 

Regardless of what you may think of the war and its stated purposes, no one can deny that these paid a terrible and lasting price. 

They deserve our honor and respect.

Next time, on November 9th, we will return to Delaware, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

Arizona XXXIX

One last trip to San Manuel to honor the last two faces on the roadside memorial found there.

I will be back in Arizona sometime next Spring, I hope to find new sites there.

Next time, on November 4th, we will return to California, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.

Wisconsin XXI

As I write this today, I wonder if Joan, or any of the other contributors to this effort, knows just how much they have added and how much it is appreciated by me and by the many readers of this post who have gained knowledge and perhaps some understanding due to their generosity?

Once more to Joan and all the others, I thank you. I have just recently received a group of pictures from another contributor that I will be posting in the not too distant future.

However, today, a few more faces of the heroes from Wisconsin.

This post falls into my sub group that I call Faces of Remembrance. You can see all of the faces collected by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's The Wall of Faces here, ( https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/) Most, if not all, states have pictures of all who were lost or are missing from their state.

Next time, on October 30th, we will return to Arizona, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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. 

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact Joan. I hope she is well.

Virginia XXXIII

Last time I promised that we would next visit Wisconsin, but, Colleen from Pennsylvania visited Luray, Virginia and sent me these pics of a memorial found deep within the world famous Caverns found there.

Located in the Cathedral Room the memorial was originally established to honor those from Page County lost in WW I. Placed by the American Legion, over the years additional tributes have been added to the site. Until 1928 no such plaques, etc., were allowed within the cavern site.

Five from Page County were lost in 'Nam and they like their comrades from earlier wars are memorialized here.

This was a tiny, tiny pic probably from a cell phone so it is especially hard to see here. 

It says, Veterans from Page county who lost their lives in Vietnam

The name of the five lost heroes from Page County are:

Norman Brubaker

Emmett Dougans

Thomas Fox

Leroy Phillips

Samuel Tharpe

R.I.P. brothers, may you always be honored and remembered. I have written here before that it is said that as long as someone says your name, you will always be. Even many feet into a marvelous cavern, these are remembered.

There is much interesting about the caverns themselves and you may check them out here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luray_Caverns

Next time, on October 25th, we will return to Wisconsin, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

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

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, Colleen from Pennsylvania and Molly from Florida, and very soon Elli from Maryland, 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 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.