Hawai'i' VII

I've recently returned from Hawai'i', where I found a small memorial west of Honolulu. It honors a story we don't hear too much about.

Back in the 60's era the National Guard was often seen as a means to avoid going to Vietnam. Rightly or wrongly, this was too often the case.

The Guard just didn't get sent to 'Nam.

Or so we thought.  

We thought wrong.

Many thousands of Guard troops ended up in 'Nam and nearly 1100 from Hawai'i from the 29th Infantry served there: 29 of them made the ultimate sacrifice.

Today, I will share their memorial and, at a future date, some of the heroes all of whom are memorialized on a wall of photos inside the building adjacent to the memorial.

 

The memorial may be found on Enterprise Street in Kapolei, about 30 min. west of Honolulu.

Next time, on September 10th, join me in Idaho. Sees you, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you have been 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 (several times now), Colleen from Pennsylvania (now three times!) Elli from Maryland and Peg and Ray from Florida (more than once!), among others have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or from where you have traveled. I even got one from Ireland!

These generous submissions have help to expand the knowledge of how we remember and honor the men and women who served in or were lost in Vietnam.

If YOU have any such photos or knowledge about these memorials and sites not already here, I would love to know of them. Please send them along to the email address on the left side of this page and I will gladly share them here.

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

Maryland 2

I have found a couple of other sites in Maryland. The first one is in Baker Park in Frederick, MD in a section adjacent to the larger park, called Courts Square. It is located across the street from the National Guard Armory and has memorials to other conflicts, too.

The site consists of a polished black obelisk which has the names and likenesses of those from Frederick that perished. The obelisk is surrounded by panels depicting scenes from the war and one with a poem inscribed. It is an extremely beautiful and moving memorial. This is especially true when one considers that "only" (I use that word very hesitantly and with the utmost of respect and understanding) 22 men were lost.

The last image is in the same location, near the flagpoles, but was placed by AMVETS. You will notice that they define the war era as 1964 to 1975.