A Place Called Vietnam

When you mention the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C., most people think of the Wall. There was a lot of controversy concerning that memorial, so let me state that while I’m not showing it here, it is not because I dislike it. The Wall is powerful. But I’ve always been drawn to more literal depictions of things, rather than abstracts, so I wanted to take a moment to look at a second portion of the memorial – the statues of the three solders that stand near the etched roll of names.

Read Full Post »

Lewis Wordless Wednesday

Read Full Post »

Wilson Wordless Wednesday

Read Full Post »

Lynch Wordless Wednesday

Read Full Post »

Emblems of belief

In a tiny little veterans section of Lake View Cemetery, I found a more diverse selection of the emblems of belief available for government headstones for veterans. All the available emblems are listed here.

The most common one that I see is described simply as a Christian Cross.

Sgt. Eddie Fields’ stone has the symbol for the United Methodist Church.

The Roberts selected the emblem for the Unitarian Church/Unitarian Universalist Association.

The emblem for the United Church of Christ tops Sgt. Yancey’s stone.

Cpl. Mack Crosby has the Episcopal Cross.

The Didios’ stone has a symbol designated as representing “Christian Church.”

The Nesbitts have a Star of David, representative of Judaism.

Read Full Post »

Our beloved son, brother, and uncle

</a

There’s so much to learn about Dale Nelson’s life from his tombstone: his parents’ names, that his and his 3 siblings’ names all started with D, and that he served in Vietnam as a Navy operations specialist. He was also an Ohio State University fan, if not an alumnus. I can’t tell from my photos if that football helmet is supposed to be colored to represent a particular team or just a general enjoyment of football.

Read Full Post »

Artificer

Melvin Larimer’s stone identifies him as having been an artificer in the Spanish-American War. I might have seen other stones with the designation before, but I hadn’t noticed. On Fort Sumter’s website, I found “artificer” in their FAQ section. Paraphrasing, an artificer would have been an enlisted artillery man with a specialized skill that allowed him to supervise or organize that kind of work.

Read Full Post »

Our immigrant past

Sacred to the memory of Alexander Doull, Colonel of Artillery in the Army of the Potomac, previously lieutenant in the Royal British Artillery

The inscription on Colonel Doull’s tombstone reminds us of a fact about the United States Civil War that be forgotten – the important role that immigrants played in the armies. About 25% of the Union army was estimated to be foreign-born immigrants. With the rate of immigration in the 19th century, we also have to assume that there was a significant slice of the United States-born soldiers who had parents or grandparents who were immigrants.

Read Full Post »

A short service

Samuel Pickands joined the 1st Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Artillery, on February 1, 1862. By the end of March, he was dead, most likely of disease. According to the Ohio Roster Commission’s Offical Roster of soldiers, Pickands died on March 25 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The tombstone identifies his place of death as Virginia rather than West Virginia. As West Virginia did not enter the Union until June 20, 1863, Pickand and his family would have known the state where he died as Virginia. Even if they were aware of the movement for West Virginia to become its own state, the convention to create a state constitution did not present a document for ratification until mid-February, and the ratification occurred at least a month after Pickands’ death.

Read Full Post »

McGillicuddy Wordless Wednesday

Read Full Post »