Arizona’s Field Cross Memorial

BY RANDALL L. SCHRIVER

In the early 1990s, Mary L. Rahm had a vision that she shared with her son-in-law, Larry R. Brown. This vision was the Field Cross Memorial that stands in the Visitors Center at the National Cemetery in Phoenix. Brown is a highly decorated U.S. Marine who served three tours in Vietnam. He searched through libraries and bookstores to find information on the Soldier’s Cross or Field Cross that depicts a fallen soldier. It is the one thing that brings all soldiers together when grave markers are not available.

Brown found that the same technique of marking a fallen soldier’s ground had been used during the Revolutionary War and even by the ancient Romans. During the Revolutionary War, a corn cap was placed over a long rifle and bayonet to mark a grave. In the Civil War, a Springfield rifle with locked bayonet was used. In the Indian wars of the 1800s, the U.S. Cavalry used a sword to mark the graves.

The Springfield rifle again was used in the cross during World Wars I and II, and the Soldier’s Cross reappeared in Korea. During the Vietnam War, the Soldier’s Cross became known as the Field Cross. In many cases actual boots were not available for funeral services in the field, so sand bags or mounds of dirt were substituted.

A young tanker in Desert Storm told Brown that the tank and artillery pieces raised in an upward position were used to depict the Field Cross in the sand. It still represents one thing: a cross to honor a fallen soldier.

The Arizona Field Cross Fund Committee was established to raise funds for the purchase and the placement of a bronze Field Cross Memorial. After several years of hard work, reconfiguring of the memorial from outside to inside, fundraising, and interacting with the National Cemetery System in Washington, D.C., all the necessary approvals were received.

John Smither of Eldorado Springs, Mo., designed the initial rendering. After several more years, Brown found Larry Peters and worked with him to complete Smither’s basic design. Peters, along with Dusty Rhoades and Terry Nolan, wrote a letter to the Arizona State Council introducing the bronze, originally titled “Tranquil Ground.” Brown said the piece communicates a sense of honor and healing, and is an appropriate memorial for veterans of the Vietnam War, both living and dead.

The bronze is a symbol of the ultimate cost of war, powerful in its imagery yet subtle in its execution. This piece neither glorifies war nor condemns it. A plaque reads: “In memory of all who served in Vietnam at great cost and of those brave men and women whose lives were lost.”

The memorial was donated by VVA Phoenix Chapter 432 and Veteran Friends of Arizona. Those contributing to this effort include Chair Larry Brown, Co-Chair Sue Wudy, Dick Darnell, Lionel Sanchez, Jim Ledy, Sandy Ledy, Gerry Giessner, Martha Kuhns, Lynn Cotter, Terry Nolan, and William Messer. The memorial was dedicated on September 22, 2001, at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona.

“This will not only serve as a monument to those who were lost in Vietnam,” Brown said, “but also as a symbol of the American spirit.”