California XXVI

Eleven or so miles east of Los Angeles, out route 10, is the city of Rosemead. previously, I have written about Rosemead because of the unique and beautiful 911 memorial in the city.

Today, however, I will tell you about the Vietnam memorial on the grounds of the City Hall.

You can see part of the 911 memorial behind this one.

The flags were dancing in the wind.

It is a not huge memorial, but honors the six men from the city who died in Vietnam. The names are hard to see and read because the beautiful flowers were in full bloom the day I visited.

You can just see some of the names along the bottom of the memorial

I wondered inside City Hall and got talking to one of the guys that works there. He was telling me about how this memorial was dedicated in 1989 replacing a much older one. I said something about being sorry that I had missed the older one. He said for me to wait a minute and he disappeared down a hall. A few minutes later he returned carrying the older memorial. He carried it out side and placed it on the ground where I could take a picture of it. What a great, reverent, and kind thing for him to do.

As you can see it is quite small, but notice that date:April 1968, the same month and year that I came home from 'Nam.

The names, as I said, are nearly invisible this time of year;

Michael Shands

Michael Craig

Dale Blume

Ramiro Moro

John Lewis

Tommy Thomas

I have heard it said that if one dies alone they will be forgotten, not these men, these heroes, these remembered here, forever.

Next time, on the 3rd of May, we will return to Florida, so meet me there, as always, at 9:00am.

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