Jim Eddleman donates family farm to provide place of healing to Vietnam veterans and their families
When Jim Eddleman of Perryville, Missouri, was 20 years old, while carrying his friends to medical evacuation helicopters during the Vietnam War, he made himself a promise: if he made it back to the United States, he would find a way to honor his comrades.
It’s a promise he hasn’t forgotten.
“I lost a lot of friends over there, and I carried some of my friends to med evac helicopters, and to this day, I don’t know whether they made it or not. I don’t even know if they was able to save their life or whether they died,” Eddleman says. “That’s what made me make this promise to show my respect for my comrades.”
Eddleman is the land donor for Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial in Perryville, for which he donated his 47-acre, three-generation family farm in 2017. He says that although he couldn’t afford to fulfill his promise immediately after he came back from Vietnam, throughout the years, he made some good investments and was able to come up with the considerable contribution of his land. Now, Eddleman says the farm is in its fourth and final generation: the Missouri National Veterans Memorial.
What started out as his idea to build a military museum has morphed, with the help of many other dedicated people, into two buildings on the site — one a welcome center and the other a museum — along with a full-scale model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Eddleman’s story
Eddleman went to the Vietnam War when he was 19, as a Specialist 4 with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, in 1967-68. He was stationed around Bien Hoa, Saigon, Long Bình and Tây Ninh, Vietnam. He had a high draft number and says he could have stayed home for several more months to a year. Knowing he would have to go at some point, however, he decided to go to the selective service office where he asked the worker, the late Betty Prost, when the next group of men would be drafted. When she replied September 19, Eddleman asked for his name to also be on that list.
“She said, ‘I’ll be glad to have you,’” Eddleman recalls. “I knew I was going to have to go, so I just wanted to go and get it over with. And I’m glad I did; I would never change anything different. I would still serve my country knowing what I know now and everything else; I would never change anything. That’s the way I feel about it.”
Eddleman says as he went through United States Army Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), he was told how bad it would be once he got to Vietnam. Although he did not take anything lightly and listened to what the drill sergeants said while doing all they told him to do, Eddleman recalls in the back of his mind, he questioned if it would really be as bad as they said, or if they were only trying to scare him.
Once there, it “was a lot worse than they had told me,” Eddleman says.
It was this experience that moved him to donate his farm on which he grew corn, soybeans and wheat to the memorial, keeping only an acre for himself, the place where he and his wife Charlene’s house stands.
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Future Plans
Despite the “wow” factor of the current memorial, the ultimate vision for the area is even grander. Eventually, Eddleman and the board would like to add statues to the memorial and build a reflection pool next to the wall, as well as a hall in which veterans can have reunions. There are also plans to add walking trails, a playground and additional memorials for veterans of each conflict in which America has taken part.
Eddleman’s gift is a grand gesture that has begotten more grand gestures. The memorial is completely privately- funded. Individuals, organizations and businesses are stepping up to get involved, providing money to make the hopes for the memorial reality. Among the most notable: The Bank of Missouri has donated $100,000, with plans for two more installments of $100,000 each. The Archdiocese of St. Louis has donated a 60-foot bell tower with a matching set of three bells to be rung at the memorial.
“It just goes to show, you do the right thing for the right reasons, and that’s exactly what Jim and Charlene do,” says Nancy Guth, executive director of Missouri’s National Vietnam Memorial. “It’s like every step of this is not just done halfway. Everything is done the right way.”
A place of healing
Because of his generosity, Eddleman has met veterans from all across the U.S. He also has participated in a flag exchange ceremony, in which American Legion Riders took the memorial’s American and POW flags to the sister monument in Washington, D.C.; Perryville’s flags now fly at the memorial in Washington, D.C., while the Washington, D.C. flags fly at the memorial in Perryville. In addition, Jackie Smith, former National Football League (NFL) tight end for the St. Louis Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys, is helping to raise funds for the memorial. In 2018, Eddleman was able to go with Smith to Canton, Ohio, to witness the NFL Hall of Fame inductee ceremony.
These are happenings Eddleman says he “never dreamed would happen,” and he is amazed these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities have happened to him, a self-described “country boy.” He remains humble, knowing it is his place to experience these things in order to raise more funds for the memorial, so more veterans and their families can heal.
For Charlie Higgins, the memorial is a place in which he can honor his brother, Hershel Higgins. Hershel was Killed In Action in Vietnam with 12 other men after stepping on a landmine when he was 20 years old. Charlie goes to the memorial every Saturday, leaving at the memorial balloons, flowers and wooden signs he’s created in memory of his brother.
“If I don’t show up on a Saturday, they worry about me. It’s kind of like my second family,” Charlie says of Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial.
Charlie has been to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. five times, and points out it is 1,500 miles away from his home in Bloomsdale, Missouri. Now, though, with Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial, Charlie can stay closer to home to honor Hershel. “I’m only 28 miles from my brother,” Charlie says. “So that’s why I go.”
In a rural setting, situated in the middle of the U.S., it is this sort of place of reflection, connection and healing that Eddleman hopes to provide with the gift of his farm.
“I’m hoping that the veterans that come here come here for a reason, and that is to go down to the wall and look up maybe their friends that they lost in the war, and that they’ll be able to remember and reflect and maybe get some healing in,” Eddleman says. “It’s an emotional time for a lot of people. There is individuals that go down to that wall that are not able [to go all the way to the wall], it’s just so emotional for them. But hopefully, I tell them the next time they come back, maybe they can get a little closer, or maybe go up to that wall and put their hands on that name, and that would be a good thing.”
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Want to give?
Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial is completely privately funded. Individual donor opportunities are available, including opportunities to give in memory of someone. If you would like to donate to the memorial, visit mnvmfund.org, or call (573) 547-2035.
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