Memorial Shines Light on Sacrifices of a Generation Ago
By: Import User
Updated: November 13, 2007
Thirty two years after the end of the Vietnam War, Evansville area vets now have a place to remember the lives of the 68 local service men who were killed in the conflict. Thanks to the fund raising efforts of local veterans, a large monument now stands along the river front in downtown Evansville. It bears the names of all of those local servicemen killed during the conflict.
The black stone memorial is reminiscent of the wall in Washington DC which contains the names of more than 58,000 US service members killed during the duration of the war.
Among those visiting the Evansville memorial during its unveiling was Suzanne Beckham, whos brother Mark Heavrin was killed during the war in 1970. She is proud of the way her brother served his country, and is glad to see the memorial finally displayed and honored.
"I think the Vietnam Veterans, the heartache they went through resonated deeper in society than people realized," Beckham said. "When they started seeing them coming back from the gulf and Iraq, they decided they werent gonna do that to our men."
