Colorado XLV

I just love the memorial in Aurora Colorado. Designed to mimic the mountains, the last vets would see as they left for 'nam and the first on the way home, it honors many.

I had planned to feature some names taken directly from one of my photos. I started checking them out on the VVMF Wall of Faces site and, oddly I thought, could not find them. I thought I had discovered an error in the records keeping.

Silly me. 

Well further investigation showed me that the memorial in Aurora is not only a Vietnam memorial but one to all from the area over many, many years. Over 6,000 in all. 

A different search method uncovered quite a few from Aurora lost in 'Nam, just not those I happened to focus on during my visit. 

Today, just a representative few.

Thomas Barber

Airman Thomas Barber was a crew member on a plane searching for submarines. The plane lost contact with land and never heard from again. Some wreckage was found but the reason for the loss was never determined. All crew members were lost and presumed dead. He is still listed as MIA.

 

Sp4 Joseph Cornelison was a chopper mechanic based in Bien Hoa. On April 26, 1969 the chopper he was a crew member to was lost, shot down on a mission in Cambodia.

On April  26, 1969 Sp4 Cornelison died. He was not on the chopper. He was in Bien Hoa. His death was classified as a suicide or self inflicted injury.

This is another of those stories that is even sadder for the fact that it is even more useless than the other tragedies of that war.

Richard L. Davis

Sp4 Richard Davis was lost on June 22, 1969 when his mobile antiaircraft weapon (called a "Duster") hit a mine.

I spend a lot of time searching for photos and info about these heroes that I highlight here. It saddens me that so very little information is available and that better photos are not provided. These men and women should be better treated, remembered, honored, in my view. 

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

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, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, 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 and/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.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos and join the group.

Colorado XX

This is my 20th post from Colorado. I think that is the most from any state, so far. There are so many interesting sites here that I call Colorado that state that keeps on giving! So enjoy and I invite, encourage in fact, you to check out the other 19 posts from this beautiful state.

The Colorado Freedom Memorial is located in Aurora just outside Denver. It honors the nearly 6000 Coloradans who have paid the ultimate price since Colorado became a state. Over half of these never returned to their home, they were lost in battle or at sea, etc.

I was very happy that I had the chance to have a long conversation with the wife of one of the guys primarily responsible for getting the memorial built. She was able to give me very precise directions about how to find then site. This turned out to be a very good thing.

It might have been easy to miss if I hadn't known exactly where to find it. As you can see, it is mostly glass and as I approached it on the highway, I nearly missed it.

This is a more direct, head on, view. It is made to recall the mountains to the west. The builders wanted to invoke the last thing Colorado's soldiers might see when flying off to different lands and different wars.

There is border that runs along the walk and as I saw it through the names, it reminded me of The Wall in D.C., so I took this shot hoping to capture that idea. The names ,of course, are reversed, but you can still get the idea.

The names here are not listed alphabetically in an effort to denote the chaos of war.

Our brothers and sisters are listed upon these central, divided panels on purpose. They mean to remind us of how the country was broken by the division over the war.

I suppose it is a bit macabre, but I always check to see if anyone who shares my name is listed among the lost heroes. Here, I found a Thomas and I salute him and all the others from 'Nam, and all the wars represented here.

The memorial may be visited at;

Springhill Community Park

756 Telluride St.

Aurora, Colorado, 80011

And, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Next time, on the 26th, we will revisit Connecticut. Join me there, as always, at 9:00am.

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