The US Certainly Loves Their Military

I had only been in the US for a few minutes when I came across the first of what was to be several military monuments. It was in the park by the American Falls and was a memorial to the men who fought in the US Civil War from this area of New York State. In Canada we are accustomed to seeing cenotaphs for the two World Wars and Korea and even the occasional one from the Boer War but I don't recall ever seeing one from the time of the English-French conflict, our version of the civil war. I was planning on seeing several of the Civil War battlefields but was not expecting to see this so far from the actual conflict zone although I suppose it makes perfect sense as this is from where troops would have been raised. It wasn't to be the last military memorial I was to see that day - far from it.

Having set the GPS to avoid the freeways I was taken on roads that I hadn't used before. I've driven south through New York State on many occasions but always as a transit route on my way somewhere further south and warmer. This time I was taken through several small towns, mostly looking pretty run down. It is clear that the global recession has not been kind to the US and in Canada we should be grateful that our ride through it was not nearly as bad as our neighbours to the south.

Heading through North Tonawanda I came across a Seabee memorial next to a Marine one. Despite having served in the army in 2 countries and having a keen interest in military history I had not heard of the Seabees but this memorial in a run down part of a run down town was a real education. Apparently this memorial is now famous nationally and has a 'dozer, a statue of a US Seabee as well as a metal bee which appears to be a symbol of the Seabees. Apparently they were born following Pearl Harbour when it was clear that much construction would be needed to win the war. The Seabees were construction workers who enlisted to build airfields and roads and other engineering projects. In fact, during the war the Seabees laid enough runway matting that it would have been enough for a wide road from San Fransisco to Tokyo.

Just further down the park from the Seabee memorial was a memorial wall for the servicemen and women of the United States Marine Corps. There appeared to be no connection between the town and the USMC except that someone had decided to create a wall funded by those whose names appeared on it. Application forms were kept in a mailbox next to the site and one could have a plaque made up with a name and dates of service in the Corps to be added to the wall. Often memorials just have the names of casualties of war but, in this case, it simply recorded service although there were more than a few with the dreaded KIA after their name.

Third row down and third plaque from the camera records Cpl Jason L Dunham who served from 2000-2004 with the initials KIA MOH after his name indicating that he was Killed In Action and that he was awarded the Medal Of Honor, the US's highest award for gallantry. Cpl Dunham was serving in Iraq and threw himself on an enemy grenade to save the lives of his team. Although he had attempted to block some of the blast with his helmet, his injuries was too severe and despite medevac, he succumbed to his injuries.

It was a shame that both this and the Seabee memorials had not been looked after during the winter as the snow had blocked the paths and it was only because of the fact that spring was arriving and snow was melting that I was able to get to them without breaking track through deep snow.

Next it was back on the road until I came to Tonawanda where their military memorial appeared to be more in keeping with Canadian and British memorials erected by towns and cities, but also included a Navy jet fighter.

My final stop for the day was in Mount Morris, just a small town that I was passing through when I came across a quite significant military memorial with a number of displays. I have no doubt that towns many times the size of little amount Morris, whose population stands at a little less than 5,000 people, have less of a memorial than here.

First of all I found 5 flagpoles and plaques which, in a normal US memorial, might be expected to represent the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard but in this case, while the flags did represent those Branches of the Service, the plaques represented 5 conflicts, an approach I had never seen before.  I'd certainly never seen a memorial to the Cold War before.

In addition there was a listing of all the community members who had fallen in all wars including the Civil War and the Mexican Border War...

...one that listed all who had served with cards that could be re-printed as names needed to be added...













 
...and a seemingly geographically unrelated memorial to the men of the 3rd Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Fox Company, 3rd Platoon which is a personal memorial by LCpl Roger Yencer to four of his fallen comrades in Vietnam, immortalized only by their nicknames on the stone. LCpl Yencer was the man who had the vision to create the park and his stone, that had been placed by a brook close to his home, was relocated here as the first part of the park.

Finally there was a reminder to all who passed by that...

...and, by the parking lot, a depository for US flags.  As I drove through New York State I saw Stars and Stripes flying from many houses and, as many of you will likely know, a flag cannot just be put into the regular garbage when it it finished with;  it must be burned.  Apparently Mount Morris has come up with a solution to everyone holding small bonfires on their porches.  One wonders if there is a day when all deposited flags are incinerated.  It certainly is a significant act as detailed here.

One can be critical of many things in the United States, as can be said for all countries, but the one thing they do as well as anyone else is recognize and support their military.  Such small towns, such elaborate memorials.  Magnificent or Over the Top?  I'm undecided.