DeWitt County Chapter 1029 Dedicates New Memorial

BY MARY BRUZZESE

DeWitt County Chapter 1029 dedicated its Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Yorktown, Texas, on Memorial Day. Some three hundred people attended the ceremony, including DeWitt County Judge Darryl Fowler, DeWitt County Sheriff Jody Zavesky, Yorktown Mayor Rene Hernandez, and most Yorktown City Council members. The event kicked off with Chapter 1029 members presenting the colors and the singing of the National Anthem. Chapter President Bill Robinson gave the opening remarks. Chapter Secretary Bill Menn then read the names of the twelve men from DeWitt County who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

Guest speaker Allen Flory, a retired Army Colonel who served as a medevac pilot in Vietnam, said: “I am pleased to help honor the twelve DeWitt County men who made the ultimate sacrifice. The fact that they were willing to do so is the most honorable thing any man or woman could possibly do.” Flory laid a wreath at the base of the memorial as Chapter members fired a 21-gun salute.

The focus of the memorial is a Huey UH-B helicopter atop a white rock base. Mounted in the base are a black granite cross honoring all who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, a black granite plaque honoring the more than five hundred DeWitt County residents who served during the war, and another granite plaque listing the names of donors who contributed at least $500 to the memorial. Lamps are built into the base to illuminate the plaques at night. Nine aluminum flagpoles display the American, Texas, Republic of Vietnam, POW/MIA, Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, and Coast Guard flags, which are also illuminated at night. Four-foot white crosses at the base of the flags honor each of the twelve DeWitt County residents who died in the war. A rose garden sits alongside the memorial. A walkway composed partially of engraved bricks runs along the front.

The memorial was the brainchild of Chapter 1029’s founding members, who began thinking about the project when the Chapter was chartered three years ago. The plans got into high gear a year later. The Chapter formed a construction committee, chaired by Laverne Buesing, and began lining up contractors. Clark Kerlick, the Chapter’s founding president, began talking to the mayor, local officials, and local newspapers about the project. He met with the Victoria Advocate and discussed the design and layout that the Chapter had in mind. The newspaper created a color image of the potential memorial and ran it on its front page, stimulating a lot of interest.

The city of Yorktown donated the site, which is on a busy two-lane highway on the edge of town, and agreed to provide water and electrical service. Chapter 1029 put down the slab for the memorial right away to show the city they were serious about the project. This also piqued interest. Local construction companies and individuals, particularly Vietnam veterans, began donating money, labor, and material. Keep Yorktown Beautiful donated the rose garden, which they will keep up. But the chapter still needed to come up with a lot of money.

Chapter treasurer Ken Buenger described the memorial as a “pay as you go” project. “Originally, they wanted to have a fish fry to raise money. But I said, ‘Look, I’m the one who usually does the cooking for these things, and I don’t think you understand the amount of work involved. I guarantee you I can make us more money with one gun raffle.’” Buenger donated an Uncle Henry Golden Boy rifle, which the Chapter raffled off for $5 a ticket. They raised $7,000 from that raffle alone. After that success, the Chapter held several more gun raffles. The Chapter also sold engraved bricks for the memorial’s walkway at $50 each.

Many Chapter members donated money and materials to the memorial. The flags and flagpoles, for example, were purchased by members. The Chapter found a helicopter that a salvage company had listed for $30,000. The problem was that the company would only hold the helicopter for one year, and the Chapter did not have the money. A handful of Chapter members loaned money to the Chapter to fill in the gap. All in all, the memorial cost about $130,000. It is completely paid for.

The local community was excited about the memorial from the beginning, especially after construction started. Chapter 1029 kept the site open to the public the whole time. “We felt that there might be people driving through that might never get a chance to come back and see it,” Buenger said. The highway that runs alongside the memorial site has heavy traffic, so a lot of people have stopped at the memorial from the beginning. “We have received nothing but positive comments about the memorial from people all around the area and surrounding counties,” Buenger said.