Roseburg, Oregon, Chapter 805:
The Fallen Soldier Battle Cross

BY JACK FLOWERS

There’s a new memorial in Roseburg, Oregon: an elegant, polished, black cube of granite engraved in the same style that was used for The Wall in Washington, D.C. Resting on top of the granite is a Fallen Soldier Battle Cross of bronze. The inscription reads: “When a service man or woman is lost on the battlefield, it has become customary to arrange their boots, rifle and helmet in the configuration you see before you. The surviving members of their squad will gather around this Battlefield Cross to memorialize their fallen comrades.” Below this: “All gave some—some gave all.”

The memorial also honors those poisoned by dioxin during the Vietnam War. A POW/MIA flag is engraved in the dark granite, which stands at the north entrance of the Roseburg VA Hospital. Doug Paxton, director of the hospital, accepted the monument during its dedication on March 4. More than 240 veterans and community members attended the ceremony. There was an American Indian ceremonial blessing performed by Robert van Norman, a tribal elder of the Cow Creek tribe of the Umpqua Indians.

Roseburg Chapter 805 paid for the memorial by selling 3,800 calendars in 2015, bringing in $19,000, and with other donations. The calendars are illustrated with photographs from the Umpqua Valley, including one of the National Guard and the local Honor Guard marching in a Veterans Day parade in Roseburg. Another is of a National Guard unit that served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Members of Chapter 805 manned tables stacked with calendars outside the doors of thirteen local businesses, as well as at the Fourth of July. One of the venues was a casino belonging to the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe, arranged with the help of Robert Red Horn. The remaining 1,200 calendars were donated to local veterans in the VA hospital.

Chapter 805 conducted twenty-two additional fundraisers and raised the $3,000 needed to complete the memorial.