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Vietnam Veteran's Memorials At College Campuses

Most people associate the nation's college campuses with antiwar activity. While many colleges and universities were indeed centers of antiwar ferment, it is also true that tens of thousands of graduates from those same campuses served in Vietnam. A few of the nation's colleges have honored their alumni who gave their lives in Vietnam with on-campus memorials.

On Memorial Day 1986, the University of Kansas (UK) dedicated the first free-standing Vietnam memorial on a major non-military college campus. The University of Kansas Vietnam Memorial is a 65-foot-long, L-shaped, limestone-and-concrete structure that lists the names of 55 UK alumni who died or are listed as missing, in Vietnam. It is inscribed with these words: "Lest we forget the courage, honor, and sacrifice of our fellow students."

UK administrator and history instructor (and VVA member) Tom Berger, a former Navy corpsman who served with the Marines in 1966-68, spearheaded the effort to build the memorial with fellow veteran John Musgrave. Their efforts were aided greatly by the university's student council, which conceived the idea and raised $10,000 for its construction. Another fund-raising boost came after UK grad Jim Lehrer sent a "McNeil/Lehrer News Hour" team to the campus. A segment on the memorial that ran on the popular PBS-TV show "really helped fund-raising," Berger told The WA Veteran. "The exposure helped a great deal."

The Jayhawk State leads the nation in on-campus Vietnam veterans memorials. Besides the UK memorial, there are free-standing tributes to Vietnam veterans at Washburn University in Topeka and at Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan. The Kansas State Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated on November 10,
1989, was built with private donations, and it sits near the KSU World War II and Korean memorial on campus. Inscribed on circular limestone block walls are the names of 42 former K-staters who died in the war.

VVA member Bill Arck of Chapter 344, who served in the Air Force, led the effort to build the memorial. Arck, who directs KSU's Alcohol and Drug Education Service, received plenty of help, including support from KSU's Air Force ROTC. The project "was, at times, a controversial issue on campus," Arck told The VVA Veteran. But all controversy ended when the memorial was completed, and it is, Arck proclaims, "one of those things in my life I am most proud."

On June 11, 1993, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, dedicated a memorial to its alumni who died in Vietnam. The memorial, a metal plaque with the names of the dead (including 27 from Vietnam), sits in Anabel Taylor Hall, the university's chapel, along with memorials to Comell alumni who died in other wars. That memorial also consists of a $100,000 scholarship fund for children of Vietnam veterans.

Among the many military college memorials is the Marion Military Institute Alumni Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated November 10, 1989. The stone monument lists the names of 21 students of the Alabama junior college who died in Vietnam, and it was built with the support of VVA members throughout the state.

VVA members in northern New Jersey helped the students at Passaic County Technical and Vocational High School in Wayne. The students designed, raised funds, and helped build the county's Vietnam veterans memorial, which sits at the school's entrance. The memorial, dedicated in 1992, honors the 82 county men who died in Vietnam.

VVA chapters have been instrumental in helping build memorials in at least two prisons: The Muskegon Correctional Facility in Michigan and the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Maryland.

Chapter 31 took the lead in soliciting funds, materials, and labor, and it donated the flag that flies over the Muskegon County Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was dedicated September 7, 1986, inside the correctional facility. The memorial consists of two brick walls in a V-shape and lists the names of county men who were killed or are missing.

VVA Chapter 172 in Cumberland, Maryland, donated the plaque that is the centerpiece of the Roxbury memorial-an oval brick structure with four flags, including the POW/MIA banner. "It's not so much a memorial to the dead as a tribute to the ones still alive," said John Worsham, a Vietnam veteran serving a life sentence who led the memorial effort at Roxbury.

VVA's California State Council is supporting a proposed veterans memorial scheduled to be built at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi. The memorial, for which ground was broken last November, will honor men and women veterans from all wars.

Memorials to American Vietnam veterans, erected on foreign soil, are primarily on U.S. military bases. In June 1977, the Freedom Tree was planted at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany to honor those missing in action in Vietnam, dark Air Force Base in the Philippines has a Peace Garden, dedicated to KIAs and POWs. Memorials honoring those who fought with the United States also stand in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

The most recent is the National Vietnam Memorial that was dedicated October 3, 1992, in Canberra, Australia. At the invitation of the Australian government, several hundred American Vietnam veterans marched in a parade and took part in the dedication ceremonies.

The first Canadian Vietnam veterans memorial is scheduled to be dedicated this fall in Melocheville, Quebec. The memorial, a landscaped park and monument, honors the roughly 30,000 Canadians who served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

On Veterans Day 1993, the national media, zeroed in on the long-awaited dedication of the Vietnam Women's Memorial on the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Sculptor Glenna Goodacre's 2,000-pound, six-foot-eight-inch bronze sculpture of three uniformed women tending a wounded male GI now sits in a grove of trees 300 feet southeast of the Wall, overlooking the entire memorial.

The women's memorial, which received longtime support from VVA-honors the more than 11,000 women who served in Vietnam. That includes eight women- Eleanor Grace Alexander, Pamela Dorothy Donovan, Carol Ann Drazba, Annie Ruth Graham, Elizabeth A. Jones, Mary T. Klinker, Sharon Anne Lane, and Hedwig Diane Orlowski-who died in Vietnam and whose names are engraved on the Wall.

In 1967, a year after Carol Drazba died in a helicopter crash, officials at Scranton State General Hospital put up a bronze plaque in the facility's main lobby to honor the former Army lieutenant.

Six years later, on Memorial Day 1973, the people of Canton, Ohio, dedicated a life-size statue of Storon Lane, the first American servicewoman who died as a result of enemy action in Vietnam. Lieutenant Lane, an Army nurse, was killed during a rocket attack at the 312th Evac Hospital in Chu Lai on June 8, 1969. The Sharon A. Lane Memorial at Aultman Hospital (her nursing school alma mater) contains the inscription: "Born to Honor-Ever at Peace," and includes the names of 109 local men killed in Vietnam.

Author's Note: Much of the material for this article was provided by WA members, many of whom have taken leadership roles in. building state and local Vietnam veterans memorials.

About the Author

Tom Berger is a writer for The VVA Veteran, the official voice of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ® An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. Learn more at www.vva.org

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