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thedrifter
06-06-08, 07:45 AM
Vietnam memorial on its way to Lansing

BY GREGORY TEJEDA
Times Correspondent | Friday, June 06, 2008

LANSING | Village officials want to organize a procession of motorcycle riders to accompany a half-size copy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as it passes through the village next week.

The actual memorial in Washington, D.C., consists of granite slabs that contain the names of nearly 58,195 casualties from the Vietnam War -- including five soldiers and two Marines from Lansing. Half-size copies routinely are shipped from city to city across the country so that people can experience the sight of the memorial.

Currently, one of those copies is in Highland, and on Wednesday it will be put on a flatbed truck and shipped to Oak Hill Cemetery in Blue Island for display.

During the shipment, the truck will travel through Lansing on Ridge Road, then north on Torrence Avenue.

Lansing Police Chief Dan McDevitt said the monument would pass through Lansing, Calumet City, Dolton, Riverdale and Calumet Park before arriving at the cemetery.

The village would like to have motorcycle riders travel alongside the monument as it moves through Lansing, in part to add to the spectacle and make sure people notice, Village President Dan Podgorski said.

McDevitt agreed.

"It will be a pretty cool thing to see," he said, adding that Lansing police squad cars also will be a part of the procession.

Officials estimated the monument replica should be in Lansing sometime between 11 a.m. and noon.

When McDevitt joked he was going so far as to consider using his own motorcycle in the procession, Podgorski said, "If you have crime under control Wednesday, then go right ahead."

Ellie