Arizona XLI

It would be difficult to name a soldier more associated with the Vietnam war than John McCain.

It is fitting then that the city of Peoria, in his home state of Arizona, has dedicated the John McCain Memorial Plaza in his memory.

Today, I will share just a couple of introductory photos from this marvelous and beautiful site. There will be more to follow.

Included as part of the Rio Vista Park it is well worth a visit, you could spend many hours here.

I noticed that these flags were at half staff and wondered if they were always lowered in tribute?  I called the City and was told that this was only the case on certain times as directed. Then I looked at the date I actually took the picture and it was September 10th, so the reason became obvious.

No matter how you might of felt about Senator McCain's politics or policies, no one can diminish his bravery, patriotism, or sacrifice.

I think anyone, no matter left of right, could learn something from him.

There will be more photos from Peoria in the not too distant future. Check back often.

In the meantime I will be posting from California on the 2nd of March, as always at 9:00 a.m., so join me then.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state or Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico click on the individual names on the left side of this page.

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 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 XXIII

Once again, I am returning to the wonderful set of photos that Joan sent me from Wisconsin. For reasons I don't know I have lost contact with her. Her email keeps bouncing back to me. I fear she may be not well. I wish I could find out. I wish  and hope that she knows how very much she has contributed to this site and to the many relatives, friends and acquaintances of these lost heroes. They will be forever remembered because of her act of curiosity and generosity. She contacted me solely because she ran across my name and then this site as she searched for an old friend with whom I happen to share a name. Kismet!

Today, a few more from her pics. As I have previously mentioned these pics are cropped out of larger ones she so kindly sent to me, so the quality is not what I would want. But, remembering and honoring these fallen is far more important than whether the pictures are museum quality.

There will be more in the future.

R.I.P. brothers.

Next time, on the 25th of February, we will return to Arizona, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00 am.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state or Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico click on the individual names on the left side of this page.

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 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.

North Carolina XXVIII

So, finally the twice promised visit to North Carolina.

While searching through files of photos, I stumbled across a photo from a place called Blowing Rock.

Blowing Rock lies about an hour and 40 minutes southwest of Mt. Airy.

The memorial, like so many, honors those from several wars. This is very common as many places simply cannot afford to build memorials to every military action we end up engaged in.

 Perhaps there is a lesson there.

Blowing Rock according to the 2020 census has a population of  less than 1400 people. So, kudos to them for choosing to allocate funds to honor their heroes. 

Below are the two from 'Nam.

Next time, on the 20th of February, we will return to Wisconsin, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state and Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico click on the individual names on the left side of this page.

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 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.

Important info for vets

UPDATE: somehow I posted this improperly. It was supposed to go up on the 8th but I messed up. So, here it is.

I am running a little behind today but this is important. 

I have never posted anything but memorial sites and some holiday diversions on this site. It has always been a place where vets and other interested people could come simply for information about Vietnam memorials and the honor we pay those who served and those who were lost. 

Today, I feel a need, more accurately an obligation, to share more startling and important info.

I have bent over backwards to keep my personal views out of this site, i.e. to keep it apolitical. 

This is just too important to ignore. 

It doesn't matter what your politics are, if you are a veteran or care about a vet, take a few moments to hear what this guy has to say. I have not independently verified every claim he makes, but what I have seen certainly indicates that he is right on target. As we have seen, the details seem to change every few moments. I have relatives who work for the Fed and get two or three emails a day changing what the last email stated as fact. So, as I write this, the details could be changing. 

The fact is veterans were made certain promises and it seems that those promises may be worthless. So much for "Rah rah, we love vets."

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/14yLAmtq5b/

I promise to get back to my memorial posts next time, on the 15th, check out North Carolina at 9:00 a.m.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state plus Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico click on the individual names on the left side of this page.

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 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.

New Mexico XXXI

I know that last time I promised to post from North Carolina today, but, I realized that i had inadvertently skipped New Mexico. 

So, I will postpone North Carolina for the moment and revisit New Mexico, specifically, Lordsburg, As I have written before, Lordsburg has a wonderful memorial to all its citizens who have served. Recently completed (2021) it honors many from different wars and I have posted previously about a few of them. You can see those posts here, here, and here.

It is amazing to me that this memorial was built in a town of just over 2,000 people and during the war years it hovered around 3,400. Once again, I will praise what some small towns do for their vets while some large States have no official memorial at all.

Today, just a couple of pics, faces actually of two of the statues within the park.

In keeping with my Faces of Remembrance sub group.

This is the Vietnam solder honoring all who served.

This is the face of a female solder. It is not clear which, if any, war she represents. Perhaps just a tribute to the many women who have served, given their lives and all too often not received the recognition and respect they have earned and greatly deserve, I have written previously about the sacrifices of the women who served so valiantly in 'Nam. Most of us know of the eight women remembered on The Wall but many others Gave All for our efforts in 'Nam, too. You can read a little about them here.

Next time, on the 8th of February, we will return to North Carolina as previously promised, so join me there, as usual, at 9:00am.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state and Canada, Ireland, and Puerto Rico click on the individual names on the left side of this page.

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 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.