Honoring the Brave
The Veterans Memorial in Leesburg Will Be a Meaningful Tribute to Soldiers.
Written by Blair Townley; Photo by Anthony Rao
Remembering veterans and what they did to ensure our freedoms will be on countless Lake Countians’ minds during the Memorial Day weekend next week.
For those involved with the Veterans Memorial at Fountain Park in downtown Leesburg behind City Hall, this weekend will be one to remember as they break ground on the new granite memorial for all veterans in Lake, Sumter and Marion Counties.
“There are more veterans [over 100,000] in this three county area than there is in the country, as that was what we have been told,” says Donald Van Beck, the Executive Director of the Veterans Memorial.
The granite memorial will stretch 2,800-square feet of the park and be at a height of 7 feet and diameter of 60 feet.
The layout will include two walls of engraved names, a lecturn and circular stone seating on each side of the wall. There will also be an area with a touch screen computer for visitors to find veterans’ names, locations on the wall and military backgrounds.
“The computer will also give when the veteran was in the service, what branch of service, what rankings they had and the medals they won,” Don adds.
“We get that information from what is called their DD214s, which they get when they are discharged. We also got a lot of information from the county records of WWII and WWI people and we currently have about 7,000 names in our computers.”
The wall will be able to hold around 30,000 names, from every recognized war starting with the Mexican Border conflict [May 1916 - April 1917] to Gulf Wars and current Iraq/Afghanistan war conflicts. Bricks paving the walkways around the walls can also be engraved with names of veterans for a fee.
A monument will be present at the groundbreaking ceremony and memorial listing all wars involving the United States and the numbers of soldiers that took part along with casualties and those wounded.
“One of the most interesting things that I learned when I gathered the information for the monument about the wars was how many people were killed, especially during the Civil War and World War II. I think that will be a shocker for people,” Don says.
Adorned on the lecturn in the memorial will be two Medal of Honor recipients that were Lake County residents as well; Captain Albert D. Wright of the Union Army during the Civil War and Private Robert Miller McTureous, Jr. of the United States Marine Corp during World War II.
The idea for the memorial originally started four years ago as a memorial just to recognize Korean War veterans, but later on the decision was made to include all veterans from every war.
“It’s a project I felt that was needed and I think the memorial brings forward to the American public the sacrifices men and women have made to keep this country free. Most people take it for granted. This monument addresses that as well,” says Don, himself a WWII and Korean War veteran.
After Saturday’s groundbreaking, the first phase of the memorial will begin in August or September with the projected dedication to occur on November 11 for Veterans Day.
If you would like to learn more about the memorial as well as learn ways you can volunteer or donate, visit the Veterans Memorial Web site at www.lakeveterans.com or call their office at (352) 314-2100.
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