Honor

The drive to develop our memorial was initiated by several local veterans of that conflict.  Our 1^st fundraiser was on November 11^th in 1989 with an all night Telethon featuring the movie “The Longest Day”.  This effort was met with surprising enthusiasm by our locally surrounding communities and that supported encouraged us to continue our efforts.  

A board of directors was formed, we filed for 501-c3 with the state of Texas and letters of incorporation  were filed.  Our board consisted of local Vietnam Veterans, wives of POW’s and an interested local business man.  As we began to develop traction, a game plan was formulated and a bank account was created.  Fundraisers were initiated which included, collection of aluminum cans for recycling, participating in local pancake breakfast by our downtown Lyons Club, Chile Cook Offs for “Make a Wish”, and the sale of Tee Shirts, Caps and mementos such as pins and patches and Brick Pavers.  It was clear that although profitable it was going to take a long time to reach our capital goal of $500,000.00.  So we approached serval prominent local business men to be on our advisory board.  These individuals were very helpful in opening the doors to some of our local foundations and their check books.  The Mayors and City Counsels of both Midland and Odessa as well local VFWs & AMVETS and the local T.V stations and newspapers form both cities were instrumental in our eventual success.  The media was very supportive and were quick to report on any all of our progress and the VFWs & AMVETS gave us legitimacy with the local vets.  We couldn’t have accomplished our goals without all of them.

We secured a site with the help of Mayor Carol Thomas and Mayor J.D. Faircloth and the Midland City Counsel.  After several months searching we were able located a suitable site and favorable terms for leasing the land for development.  Our agreement stated that the lease payments would go to support a perpetual maintenance fund along with a finial cash payment to the City of Midland which the city would match.   The Site would be designated as a park to avoid any future relocation of the memorial, but that it would always be the trust of the committee for safe keeping.  Our site is located at 9900 Wright Drive at the Midland-Odessa Airport.  This site is perfect as it servers both cities equally. 

Ground was broken around 1999 with the memorial proper being dedicated on November 11^th in 2001.    I remember going to the site when the bricks were being laid for the supporting wall and seeing more then one of the brick layers with tears streaming down their faces.  It was then I found out that the construction of the memorial was done primarily by Vietnam Veterans.  Our job superintendent was Cecil Davis also a Vietnam Veteran.  When concrete was being poured more then one person came and place “keepsakes” in the wet cement.  POW/MIA bracelets along with dog tags and P4’s were place in honor and remembrance.

In 2002