New Jersey XXXIII

The memorial in Runnemede, NJ sits along the highway and I happened to see it as I sat in dead stopped traffic: Silver lining!!

It lists many names of those who served.

Buried among the many who served (120) are two KIAs and I want to honor them today. I am somewhat surprised that there are only two

The first if these is:

PFC Gilch was lost on July 21, 1966. The location of his loss is listed as "unknown."

 LCPL Haley was lost on September 1st 1967 at Thua Thien.

I ask you to join me on the 21st of June when we will return to New Mexico and a rare opportunity to honor one of the intrepid women who served in Vietnam, as always 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.

New Jersey XV

Just a few blocks off the New Jersey Turnpike is Runnemede and they have a really impressive Veterans memorial.

I found it while just driving around New Jersey to see what I might find and almost missed it, but luck prevailed.

The main memorial as with so many is to WWII veterans, but of to the right there is a stand alone memorial to all who served in 'Nam.

There are a couple designated by a star that were lost.

I noticed that over on the left side at the bottom of a larger section honoring Korean War vets there were more names listed from Vietnam. I have been unable to track down why these are listed here, but I assume they are names discovered after the stand alone was dedicated. This happens all the time and I have commented a number of times in the past about it is a very rare memorial that has not been added to over the years. Names are frequently added to The Wall in DC in May. None have been added in the last two years so one wonders (hopes?) that perhaps the last name has been added leaving the total at 58,318, but time will tell.

Runnemede is about eight miles south of Camden and off exit 3 on the turnpike and located at Black Horse Pike and Constitution Road.

Next time, on the 12th, we will check out New York, so join me there, as usual at 9:00am.

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