The final stage of the Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been completed and the Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation is celebrating with a rededication ceremony to be held May 31 at 10AM at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Lejeune Memorial Gardens along Highway 24 near the Camp Johnson Gate. The free ceremony is open to the public.
Local Military, City and County Leaders and dignitaries are expected to participate in the event. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has been invited and Jacksonville Mayor Sammy Phillips, Onslow County Chairman, Paul Buchanan and General Major Ray Smith have indicated they will speak. Major General Smith was Camp Lejeune’s Commanding General in 1997 and played a critical role in acquiring the existing land for the memorial.
The Memorial includes an entry wall with symbols for the military services, a walkway and bridge with French design, a glass wall etched with the names of MIA, POW or deceased from the Vietnam War. The flags at the entry wall include Military, POW/MIA, NC State and US flags. The fountain has 5 jets representing each branch of the armed forces. Each jet is lit with a different color which can be viewed best at night. The dome, completed most recently is the finishing piece of the memorial and caps the fountain. The unofficial words to ‘Taps’ is inscribed around the Dome.
Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial Background
The memorial is dedicated to all men and women who served during the Vietnam War, and the nearly ten million Veterans of the Armed Forces who actively served during the Vietnam era, nearly three million of whom served in the Vietnam theater, including wounded service members, the many POW/MIAs that are still unaccounted for and the deceased. The Onslow memorial is one of the largest Vietnam Veterans Memorials in the nation and one of only a few that lists all the names of the fallen. There are 58,229 names of men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Funding for this project was made possible in part by the City of Jacksonville, Onslow County and donations from the Community.
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Media Note: Images of the newly constructed dome at the Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial are available on the City of Jacksonville, NC Flickr site
Organizer Leader - Pat Walker 910 545-9333
Media Contact - Glenn Hargett 910 938-5220