NewsJanuary 16, 2019
Large donations add features to Perryville Vietnam memorial project
PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Thanks to donations from community members in Perryville and beyond, more projects at Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial can come together ahead of the monument’s May 18 and 19 grand opening. The full-scale duplicate of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., stands on 43 acres of former farmland just off Route V, donated by Vietnam veteran Jim Eddleman...
PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Thanks to donations from community members in Perryville and beyond, more projects at Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial can come together ahead of the monument’s May 18 and 19 grand opening.
The full-scale duplicate of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., stands on 43 acres of former farmland just off Route V, donated by Vietnam veteran Jim Eddleman.
Eddleman was a soldier in Vietnam in 1968 when he made a promise to himself: If he made it out of the war alive, he’d build a memorial to honor the sacrifices of those who had fought and died.
Now, in addition to that monument, welcome center and concrete walkway, all already open to the public, an honor flag memorial plaza is under construction, executive director Nancy Guth said.
The welcome center’s interfaith chapel, where weekly Tuesday coffee is served for any who want to attend, opens onto the plaza, and the flagpole is framed by double doors.
Memorial bricks, etched in honor of or in memory of veterans, will pave the plaza, Guth said.
Five granite panels, each 10-feet tall, will honor the five military branches, Guth said, and the plaza will also have trees and benches.
The American flag is double-stitched to resist the area’s winds, Guth said.
“They just placed the flagpole Friday, and construction should be finished by our grand opening May 18 and 19,” Guth said.
Guth said the monument wall, museum, honor flag memorial plaza and all other planned developments will pay tribute to all veterans, not just from the Vietnam conflict, but all veterans, and current and active members of the military.
All of this is donor-funded, Guth said, and a recent commitment by The Bank of Missouri will help fund it, and future projects.
It’s a three-year, $300,000 donation by the bank, and the first $100,000 installment was presented recently, according to a news release.
“The Bank of Missouri is proud to support our veterans,” David Crader, U.S. Navy Veteran and president of Reliable Community Bancshares, the holding company for The Bank of Missouri, stated in the release. “This replica of the Vietnam Wall in D.C. is something that will impact the Perryville community with visitors from coast to coast. As a leader in our community, it is important that we step up with a strong commitment to the project,” Crader added in the release.
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Guth said she is thankful for The Bank of Missouri’s show of support for the monument “and our mission to pay tribute to all of the service men and women to provide a peaceful place for reflection.”
The donation will help sustain the facilities, Guth said, and will help fund the addition of more memorials that will encompass all American conflicts, including a planned reflecting pool in front of the monument.
Guth said even though the welcome center has business hours, the monument is available for anyone to visit 24 hours a day.
More than 58,000 names are lasered into the monument’s black granite face and set in place, even oriented to the sun the same way as the Washington monument.
It’s sobering, to see this monument on farmland, a silent testament that, from a distance, looks like it’s just a black wall with some white stripes, volunteer Steve Rodewald said.
But then, closer up, the names come into focus, he said.
“Richard Nelson,” he read aloud. “He was someone’s son.”
During the war, Rodewald said, to keep morale up, when someone died in combat, superiors “never made a big deal of it.”
That, said Rodewald, himself a Vietnam veteran, is why the conversations around this monument are important.
“A lot of us, within the first X number of years after we got out, we were ashamed, and put to shame,” he said of his fellow service members. “Within the last 10 years, we’re being recognized. And we don’t want men returning now to deal with what we did.”
Some people visit the monument to leave memorials, he said, but many come just to remember.
“There’s a lot to this wall, and it took a lot,” Rodewald said of the monument.
mniederkorn@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3630
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