Thank a Veteran for your freedom

It’s exciting to see work progressing at such a rapid pace at the Veterans Walk of Honor memorial park in downtown Anderson.

“The contractor is pouring concrete today and we hope he will be able to pour some more tomorrow, but we are watching the weather very carefully,” reported Jeff Kiser, Anderson’s assistant city manager and director of public works.

All of the underground utilities are in place and so is the seat wall and the metal trellis where the plaques with veterans names will be mounted on a Wall of Honor, Kiser said.

“Things are progressing well and there will be one day this week when you will drive by it and say, ‘Oh, wow.’ I think we are all waiting for that day,” he continued.

Depending upon the weather since colored concrete tends to blotch when raindrops fall, the $205,000 project could be finished in time for a grand opening celebration by Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, Kiser said.

“That is what James Yarbrough is hoping for,” he added.

However wonderful the downtown Anderson project will be, other equally ambitious projects are just starting to take shape.

Our Page 1 story about a large Vietnam Memorial sculpture destined for the Northern California Veterans Cemetery is beginning to draw a considerable amount of interest as the fundraising committee begins its work.

Kim Chamberlain, my life partner, is dedicating her time to help formulate plans to raise the $500,000 estimated to build the imposing 20-foot high and 12-foot wide bronze sculpture and to create an endowment fund so that maintenance of the structure in perpetuity will not cost the State of California anything.

With assistance from the Scripps-Howard Foundation, I was fortunate enough in obtaining a $1,000 grant for further landscaping of the grounds surrounding the Veterans Memorial Building or chapel that was completed last year by the California Veterans Assistance Group.

The landscaping project will cost approximately $40,000 when completed. Plans call for a memorial sculpture befitting such a structure to be commissioned and installed, along with meandering walking pathways and a memorial grove, among other features.

All of these projects are designed to honor all those who are actively serving our country to keep us safe and preserve our freedom.

They also honor all those who have served in our nation’s armed forces, including those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our country and its ideals, whether here at home or on some unknown beach, obscure village or farmer’s field overseas.

Please read the Guest Editorial on this same page by the current commander of the American Legion. It is a powerful message about the great debt that we owe as a nation and as a people to those who serve in our military forces.

Take part in one of the Veterans Day activities this week or personally thank the Veterans that you know. It will do them and you a world of good.