thedrifter
03-26-07, 03:11 PM
Long before the shooting stops, Americans memorialize war dead
The Associated Press
Published: March 26, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO: It took seven years after the fighting had ended for the United States to dedicate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. This time around, Americans are not waiting for the shooting to stop.
On beaches and bases, town squares and veterans' clubs, they are building their monuments to America's fallen as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on.
Vietnam, in one way or another, looms large over this impulse to memorialize the war dead in real time. Some are erecting these monuments as anti-war statements against what they regard as another Vietnam; others are doing it to express their gratitude to the troops now, rather than later, as was done with the Vietnam veterans.
"The sentiment of the nation — they're more behind us this time. They saw what happened in Vietnam. They didn't want to do that again to soldiers," said Fort Stewart, Georgia, spokesman Kevin Larson, emphasizing that he was speaking for himself, not for the Army base.
The names of the dead are engraved on the rocks in a rambling stone wall in Asheville, North Carolina. They are etched in black marble at a military club in San Francisco and in black granite at the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon. In Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Lafayette, California, the Iraq toll is measured in thousands of white crosses.
Veterans for Peace in North Carolina, an anti-war group, helped raise money for the Asheville monument.
"Some of us are still young enough to remember the Vietnam War, and we see this war in Iraq as being very much the same sort of misguided adventure," said past president Ken Ashe, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam.
Oregon taxpayers and other private donors financed the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom Memorial in Salem. It consists of a bronze statue of a kneeling soldier and a black granite wall engraved with the names of more than 70 soldiers and Marines with Oregon ties who have died in the two wars.
With no end to either war in sight, the designers of the Oregon monument left most of their wall blank, so future deaths can be added.
In fact, one grim common theme among many of the shrines is that they are running out of space. Plans are already being drawn up for an expansion of the memorial in San Francisco, built and maintained by the Marines' Memorial Club.
Retired Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, president of the Marines' Memorial Club, helped conceive the San Francisco monument, which resembles the Vietnam wall, after parents of war dead expressed fear that their children would be forgotten. The club has spent more than $100,000 (€75,386) in private donations on the project.
Officially, the monument is nonpolitical, meant only to honor sacrifice. But Myatt, who served two tours in Vietnam and fought in the first Gulf War, said it conveys another message. Pointing to one section of names, he noted that they were all enlisted men, most of them probably young.
"It's the youth, and old men sending young men to die," Myatt said. He added: "You shouldn't be able to send young people into battle and die unless you've had someone die in your arms as a result of an order you've given."
On the Net:
Marines' Memorial Club: www.marineclub.com
Ellie
The Associated Press
Published: March 26, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO: It took seven years after the fighting had ended for the United States to dedicate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. This time around, Americans are not waiting for the shooting to stop.
On beaches and bases, town squares and veterans' clubs, they are building their monuments to America's fallen as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on.
Vietnam, in one way or another, looms large over this impulse to memorialize the war dead in real time. Some are erecting these monuments as anti-war statements against what they regard as another Vietnam; others are doing it to express their gratitude to the troops now, rather than later, as was done with the Vietnam veterans.
"The sentiment of the nation — they're more behind us this time. They saw what happened in Vietnam. They didn't want to do that again to soldiers," said Fort Stewart, Georgia, spokesman Kevin Larson, emphasizing that he was speaking for himself, not for the Army base.
The names of the dead are engraved on the rocks in a rambling stone wall in Asheville, North Carolina. They are etched in black marble at a military club in San Francisco and in black granite at the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon. In Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Lafayette, California, the Iraq toll is measured in thousands of white crosses.
Veterans for Peace in North Carolina, an anti-war group, helped raise money for the Asheville monument.
"Some of us are still young enough to remember the Vietnam War, and we see this war in Iraq as being very much the same sort of misguided adventure," said past president Ken Ashe, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam.
Oregon taxpayers and other private donors financed the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom Memorial in Salem. It consists of a bronze statue of a kneeling soldier and a black granite wall engraved with the names of more than 70 soldiers and Marines with Oregon ties who have died in the two wars.
With no end to either war in sight, the designers of the Oregon monument left most of their wall blank, so future deaths can be added.
In fact, one grim common theme among many of the shrines is that they are running out of space. Plans are already being drawn up for an expansion of the memorial in San Francisco, built and maintained by the Marines' Memorial Club.
Retired Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, president of the Marines' Memorial Club, helped conceive the San Francisco monument, which resembles the Vietnam wall, after parents of war dead expressed fear that their children would be forgotten. The club has spent more than $100,000 (€75,386) in private donations on the project.
Officially, the monument is nonpolitical, meant only to honor sacrifice. But Myatt, who served two tours in Vietnam and fought in the first Gulf War, said it conveys another message. Pointing to one section of names, he noted that they were all enlisted men, most of them probably young.
"It's the youth, and old men sending young men to die," Myatt said. He added: "You shouldn't be able to send young people into battle and die unless you've had someone die in your arms as a result of an order you've given."
On the Net:
Marines' Memorial Club: www.marineclub.com
Ellie