| eople associate the nation's college campuses with | | | | Chapter 31 took the lead in soliciting funds, materials, |
| antiwar activity. While many colleges and universities | | | | and labor, and it donated the flag that flies over the |
| were indeed centers of antiwar ferment, it is also | | | | Muskegon County Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which |
| true that tens of thousands of graduates from those | | | | was dedicated September 7, 1986, inside the |
| same campuses served in Vietnam. A few of the | | | | correctional facility. The memorial consists of two |
| nation's colleges have honored their alumni who gave | | | | brick walls in a V-shape and lists the names of county |
| their lives in Vietnam with on-campus memorials. | | | | men who were killed or are missing. |
| On Memorial Day 1986, the University of Kansas (UK) | | | | VVA Chapter 172 in Cumberland, Maryland, donated |
| dedicated the first free-standing Vietnam memorial | | | | the plaque that is the centerpiece of the Roxbury |
| on a major non-military college campus. The | | | | memorial-an oval brick structure with four flags, |
| University of Kansas Vietnam Memorial is a | | | | including the POW/MIA banner. "It's not so much a |
| 65-foot-long, L-shaped, limestone-and-concrete | | | | memorial to the dead as a tribute to the ones still |
| structure that lists the names of 55 UK alumni who | | | | alive," said John Worsham, a Vietnam veteran serving |
| died or are listed as missing, in Vietnam. It is inscribed | | | | a life sentence who led the memorial effort at |
| with these words: "Lest we forget the courage, | | | | Roxbury. |
| honor, and sacrifice of our fellow students." | | | | VVA's California State Council is supporting a |
| UK administrator and history instructor (and VVA | | | | proposed veterans memorial scheduled to be built at |
| member) Tom Berger, a former Navy corpsman who | | | | the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi. The |
| served with the Marines in 1966-68, spearheaded the | | | | memorial, for which ground was broken last |
| effort to build the memorial with fellow veteran John | | | | November, will honor men and women veterans from |
| Musgrave. Their efforts were aided greatly by the | | | | all wars. |
| university's student council, which conceived the idea | | | | Memorials to American Vietnam veterans, erected on |
| and raised $10,000 for its construction. Another | | | | foreign soil, are primarily on U.S. military bases. In June |
| fund-raising boost came after UK grad Jim Lehrer | | | | 1977, the Freedom Tree was planted at Ramstein Air |
| sent a "McNeil/Lehrer News Hour" team to the | | | | Force Base in Germany to honor those missing in |
| campus. A segment on the memorial that ran on the | | | | action in Vietnam, dark Air Force Base in the |
| popular PBS-TV show "really helped fund-raising," | | | | Philippines has a Peace Garden, dedicated to KIAs |
| Berger told The WA Veteran. "The exposure helped | | | | and POWs. Memorials honoring those who fought |
| a great deal." | | | | with the United States also stand in Australia, Canada, |
| The Jayhawk State leads the nation in on-campus | | | | and New Zealand. |
| Vietnam veterans memorials. Besides the UK | | | | The most recent is the National Vietnam Memorial |
| memorial, there are free-standing tributes to Vietnam | | | | that was dedicated October 3, 1992, in Canberra, |
| veterans at Washburn University in Topeka and at | | | | Australia. At the invitation of the Australian |
| Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan. The | | | | government, several hundred American Vietnam |
| Kansas State Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated | | | | veterans marched in a parade and took part in the |
| on November 10, | | | | dedication ceremonies. |
| 1989, was built with private donations, and it sits near | | | | The first Canadian Vietnam veterans memorial is |
| the KSU World War II and Korean memorial on | | | | scheduled to be dedicated this fall in Melocheville, |
| campus. Inscribed on circular limestone block walls are | | | | Quebec. The memorial, a landscaped park and |
| the names of 42 former K-staters who died in the | | | | monument, honors the roughly 30,000 Canadians who |
| war. | | | | served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. |
| VVA member Bill Arck of Chapter 344, who served | | | | On Veterans Day 1993, the national media, zeroed in |
| in the Air Force, led the effort to build the memorial. | | | | on the long-awaited dedication of the Vietnam |
| Arck, who directs KSU's Alcohol and Drug Education | | | | Women's Memorial on the grounds of the Vietnam |
| Service, received plenty of help, including support | | | | Veterans Memorial in Washington. Sculptor Glenna |
| from KSU's Air Force ROTC. The project "was, at | | | | Goodacre's 2,000-pound, six-foot-eight-inch bronze |
| times, a controversial issue on campus," Arck told | | | | sculpture of three uniformed women tending a |
| The VVA Veteran. But all controversy ended when | | | | wounded male GI now sits in a grove of trees 300 |
| the memorial was completed, and it is, Arck | | | | feet southeast of the Wall, overlooking the entire |
| proclaims, "one of those things in my life I am most | | | | memorial. |
| proud." | | | | The women's memorial, which received longtime |
| On June 11, 1993, Cornell University, Ithaca, New | | | | support from VVA-honors the more than 11,000 |
| York, dedicated a memorial to its alumni who died in | | | | women who served in Vietnam. That includes eight |
| Vietnam. The memorial, a metal plaque with the | | | | women- Eleanor Grace Alexander, Pamela Dorothy |
| names of the dead (including 27 from Vietnam), sits | | | | Donovan, Carol Ann Drazba, Annie Ruth Graham, |
| in Anabel Taylor Hall, the university's chapel, along | | | | Elizabeth A. Jones, Mary T. Klinker, Sharon Anne Lane, |
| with memorials to Comell alumni who died in other | | | | and Hedwig Diane Orlowski-who died in Vietnam and |
| wars. That memorial also consists of a $100,000 | | | | whose names are engraved on the Wall. |
| scholarship fund for children of Vietnam veterans. | | | | In 1967, a year after Carol Drazba died in a helicopter |
| Among the many military college memorials is the | | | | crash, officials at Scranton State General Hospital put |
| Marion Military Institute Alumni Vietnam Veterans | | | | up a bronze plaque in the facility's main lobby to |
| Memorial, dedicated November 10, 1989. The stone | | | | honor the former Army lieutenant. |
| monument lists the names of 21 students of the | | | | Six years later, on Memorial Day 1973, the people of |
| Alabama junior college who died in Vietnam, and it | | | | Canton, Ohio, dedicated a life-size statue of Storon |
| was built with the support of VVA members | | | | Lane, the first American servicewoman who died as |
| throughout the state. | | | | a result of enemy action in Vietnam. Lieutenant Lane, |
| VVA members in northern New Jersey helped the | | | | an Army nurse, was killed during a rocket attack at |
| students at Passaic County Technical and Vocational | | | | the 312th Evac Hospital in Chu Lai on June 8, 1969. |
| High School in Wayne. The students designed, raised | | | | The Sharon A. Lane Memorial at Aultman Hospital |
| funds, and helped build the county's Vietnam | | | | (her nursing school alma mater) contains the |
| veterans memorial, which sits at the school's | | | | inscription: "Born to Honor-Ever at Peace," and |
| entrance. The memorial, dedicated in 1992, honors | | | | includes the names of 109 local men killed in Vietnam. |
| the 82 county men who died in Vietnam. | | | | Author's Note: Much of the material for this article |
| VVA chapters have been instrumental in helping build | | | | was provided by WA members, many of whom |
| memorials in at least two prisons: The Muskegon | | | | have taken leadership roles in. building state and local |
| Correctional Facility in Michigan and the Roxbury | | | | Vietnam veterans memorials. |
| Correctional Institution in Maryland. | | | | |