American Legion adding to Atlanta’s Veterans Memorial Plaza

Veterans of the J.E. Manning American Legion Post 258 have been at it again. They’ve undertaken a task to enlarge the concept of the Veterans Memorial Plaza in downtown Atlanta. It will include those who served in this nation’s Middle East and Gulf Wars as well.

The legionnaires are adding a stone section to honor the veterans of these conflicts. These are the wars of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. And more, such as the first responders of 9-11, will be included.

“We’ve been working on raising money for this memorial for about two years,” said Mike Lee, legion post officer and leader along with others of the project.

“We know the veterans of Vietnam returned with little honor. We’ll use this Memorial Day as a dedication moment for them and others who served in that part of the world. The foundation for their memorial is ready and two stones will be in place. These are the center pedestal and first black stone.”

Lee further described that the white center pedestal will have the words honor, duty, service and fidelity inscribed.

“That’s the theme,” he said. “We’ve done all this and gotten this far with the help of our stone company, Texas Custom Stoneworks in Winnsboro. For example, they assisted on the design and have purchased the stones already. They will hold them for us while we finish raising the funds. We expect the project to cost some $40,000. We’ll have $20,000 by Memorial Day.”

One of the biggest pieces of advice was to purchase all the stones at the same time from the same place so they would be identical. The black stones are coming from Minnesota and the white stone from California.

“We’re glad most of this is coming together for this Memorial Day.

We’ve been trying like mad to get all the details done and things in place,” Lee continued.

“The concrete company donated concrete, Price Hardware the rebar and steel and the Martin Marietta Aggregates are the ones pouring the foundation. When completed, a plaque on the wall will list major contributors.”

Lee said it is refreshing to see how much can be raised by setting up a table at a local business and selling rifle raffle tickets at $10 each.

“We’ll have a picture of the Middle East War monument. When people see what it’s for, they really give. One Saturday we had three doors at nearby stores, and we raised $1,000 at each door.”

Lee concluded his remarks with a solemn purpose statement for the legion post.

“We want the monument to be here and appreciated 50 years from now. We are looking down the road. Our children and grandchildren. What we do here can be carried over to other parts of this veterans plaza memorial. That is, if we get in other wars, which we seem to do.”

Memorial Day ceremony will be Monday, May 29, and a full program is planned.

Photo by Neil Abeles. The concrete foundation of a new memorial is being made at Veterans Plaza in Atlanta. The monument on this foundation will honor veterans of the Middle East Wars and others.

Photo by Neil Abeles. Members of the American Legion Post 258 discuss their rifle raffle ticket sales. From left, they are Gary Richardson, Mike Lee and Mike Stewart. Stewart is the J.E. Manning Legion Post commander.

Photos by Neil Abeles. Atlanta’s Veterans Plaza, at right, is at not only the center of town but also almost certainly at the center of citizens’ hearts as well. Above is the artist’s design for the monument to honor veterans of the Middle East conflicts. This will be installed at Veterans Plaza in Atlanta, which already honors the World War I and World War II era veterans.