By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
6/27/2009 11:48 PM
A motorcycle escort of thousands of riders following a semitrailer transporting the Dignity Memorial® Vietnam Wall, a three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to Piedmont High School ’s Stout Field near the intersection of OK-Highway 4 and Edmond Road in Piedmont , Okla.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
6/22/2009 8:27 PM
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS TO READ
ALL 58,000+ NAMES ON THE WALL
We will be reading all 58,000+ names that are listed on the Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall and we need your help!
There will be two readers reading every other name in 15 minute intervals. A small PA system will be used to broadcast the names very low and quietly into the background.
If you can help read the names of our Fallen Heroes, please contact Brooke Kuns ASAP by email brookek@piedmont-ok.gov.
Thank you,
Amy Lawter
Co Chair Publicity Committee
Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall
Piedmont, Oklahoma
405-203-6672
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
6/13/2009 8:34 AM
Draft 6/12/09
WEDNESDAY
JULY 1, 2009
4:00 PM – Staging of Motorcycles – VFW in El Reno
6:00 PM – Depart for Piedmont – Route 66 to Yukon, then North to Piedmont on Highway 4
7:00 PM – Arrive at Stout Field – Erect Wall
9:00 PM – Purple Heart Ceremony – Wall Apex
Posting of Colors - Vietnam Veterans Oklahoma City Chapter
"Taps"
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
5/30/2009 9:54 AM
Free and open to the public 24 hours a day from Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5, the replica is eight feet high and 240 feet long. Its black, reflective surface is inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 servicemen and women who died or are missing in Vietnam . Paper and pencils will be provided so visitors can make rubbings of names etched on the wall.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
5/29/2009 6:47 PM
 The ground was rocking like a seven point five earthquake. Whistling rockets were diving, the bunks threatened to topple as the metal hooch clanged and quivered. Shrapnel sliced into the building as though it were butter. The most terrifying part of the rocket attack was when the whistling stopped -- the two to three seconds before impact. In those seconds Dan just waited hoping the rocket wasn’t coming down on top of him.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
5/29/2009 6:46 PM
With dark blond wavy hair and a movie-star smile Larry Welsh proudly walked his bride, Margaret, down the aisle of their hometown, Kansas City, Kansas church on June 17, 1967. Margie, a beauty with straight brown hair, long eyelashes lining big dark eyes, was 20 and her high school sweetheart groom had just turned 21 the day before their wedding. Wildly in love and devoted to each other, they decided to settle in their hometown, Margie working for Dial Financial and Larry a switchman for the Santa Fe Railroad Company.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
5/29/2009 6:43 PM
 And then the memory of the ambush rushed into his pounding head. As usual he readily returned the machine gunfire from atop of his Armored Personnel Carrier with his M60. Then the enemy’s sharp bullet pierced his left hand. It went through the fleshy part between the index finger and the thumb. No big deal, he thought at first -- he’d been hurt before. The shrapnel scars on his hip and shoulder could testify to the assaults his body had endured from atop “Lech” the name Kenny Kreutz – his crew’s commander -- had given their tank.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
4/30/2009 3:44 PM
By the way he holds his baby granddaughter, looks at his wife, speaks proudly of his two grown sons—Ryan and Mike both graduates of Piedmont High and of OU—and by the way he remembers his mom, Ronnie Mays communicates that life is precious. By the way he serves his church, cheers his baseball and T-ball-playing granddaughters and cares for his house, his garden and his memory books, it’s clear that Ronnie cherishes life.
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
4/30/2009 3:31 PM
In April of 1968, Kevan Blasdel was a college student between course loads living in Piedmont, California near Berkeley. He received his draft notice from the U.S. Army to report to the Oakland Induction Center in July, and complete basic training and advanced infantry training, at Fort Lewis, Washington. “It was a good thing I was drafted,” says the former University of Texas El Paso cross country runner. “I was going nowhere. College for me was just a way I could continue playing sports.”
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By Memorial Vietnam Wall on
4/7/2009 5:40 PM
“You know the homeless people you see downtown how about half of them are Vietnam War Veterans?” Art Bickley sincerely asks. “Well that would have been me if it wasn’t for my wife and my mother and father in law.”
Enlisted in 1965, Art Bickley was as an Airman First Class airplane mechanic crew chief on an AC-47 gunship at Bhin Thuy Air Force Base. There he worked 12 to 18 hour days to prepare and repair airplanes to fly missions. At 20-years-old, he was known as “Pops” to his crew.
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