Georgia XIII

On my first visit to Georgia a number of years ago, I had not yet come up with the idea for my Faces of Remembrance series, so, did not take the portraits of the soldiers depicted here. On my more recent visit I was ready.

This series actually needs little commentary from me as I am frequently struck be the emotion and detail that the sculptors are able to capture, the faces say it all.

I wonder what exactly the sculptor was trying to create here. It does strike me that the weathering of these faces creates tear streams on two of them.

What do you see in these faces?  Please let me know in the comments section, I would love to hear from you and what you think.

Next time, on the 13th, we will revisit Maine, so meet 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.

Georgia V

Last week I returned to Atlanta to find an eternal flame about which I had read an article. As so often seems to be the case when researching these things the info I had turned out to be incorrect. After driving somewhat aimlessly for a bit, I decided to go into the capitol building itself and see if I could get some more accurate information.

The original article said that the flame was on the grounds of the capitol building but after circumventing it and not finding it, just to be sure, I went in side.

The Georgia State Trooper manning the desk could not have been nicer, but he was a bit unsure about what I was looking for so he called over his colleague and we determined that it was not far away and they gave me directions.

His help took me, once again, to the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veterans Memorial Plaza where the Georgia Vietnam memorial is located. It turns out that the flame had been relocated some time fairly recently.I have written, previously about the Georgia Vietnam memorial and Pete Wheeler and you can find that elsewhere on this site.

Also, to my great surprise, we came upon the original Georgia Vietnam memorial, now located, too, at the same site. I am always thrilled when I find something I didn't expect on this journey.

This nearby sign gives some explanation.

Adjacent to this historic memorial is the eternal flame that began this particular journey. Each of the four faces honors a different war.

When I first visited this site a number of years ago it was so cold I had trouble getting shots that I liked. This time the new photos of the Georgia Vietnam Memorial are better and perhaps I will post them here in the future.

For now, next time we will make a trio back to Maryland, so join me there as usual at 9:00am on the 29th of June.

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

Georgia

I reserved some southern states until winter. I figured better to go there in January than go to Minnesota! I suppose this was the wisest choice, but I was still blindsided by how incredible cold it can get in"the sunny south!" I left Kentucky unable to photograph the memorial there due to snow cover. Nashville was bitter and raining and Atlanta was so cold I wondered if I would be able to steady the camera to take the shots!

After figuring out some directions that were not as precise as I would have liked, I found the memorial. It sits in front of the Floyd Veterans Memorial building located at 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive at Piedmont Ave. The building sits across the street from the State Capitol bldg.

After photographing the memorial which is dedicated to 1584 lost, 8,534 wounded, 21 Ex-POW's and 41 MIA's (these are all honored on a Wall directly adjacent to the statue) from the state, I decided to walk into the building itself. I was so cold I needed a little warmth before moving on. I got talking with one of the guards and she sent me upstairs to the Georgia Department of Veteran's Services Offices in the building. I spent quite some time talking to people about the memorial and discovered that the plaza housing the memorials is named after Pete Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler is the current head of the department and has worked for them since 1949! Talk about service to your country and vets!