World War II Memorial
Vermilion County, Illinois
[Upper - Center Panel]:
Honor and Glory to our Fighting Heroes
Condolence to those who’s loved ones have fallen in battle, and a proud though regrettable chapter in Vermilion County’s History of World War 2.
[Lower - Center Panel]:
Reflections on Victory
No more the vicious mortars wine,
Nor deadly bombs go screaming down;
another river, now, the Rhine,
and Tokyo another town.
The bayonet now safely sheathed
that glinted once at Kasserine;
in Normandy are softly wreathed
shell-shattered trees in garlands green.
The V-2 bombs no longer fly
Nor air raid sirens blast the air.
No Mitsubishis take the sky
and Mars is driven to his lair.
A million Mothers kneel to pray,
a million lights gleam ever bright
to rival dawning of the day
that ends the long and hideous night.
But while the World gives happy voice
to bursting hearts O’erflowing. Yet
give pause awhile as we rejoice,
And soulfully pray. Lest we forget:
A ship once known as Reuben James.
The ammunition and the prayer:
Pearl Harbor, Wake, and other names.
Like Kelly, Wainwright, and O’Hare:
Manila and the March of Death
that crowned Carregidor. Bataan:
the Indies. And the fevered breath
of Burma jungles. And the man
who, when the days were dark,
spoke the words, “I Shall Return !”
Feeding tinder to the spark
that saw all Asia swiftly burn.
Midway, Tarawa, and Guam.
New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea:
Saipan, the Marshalls and the calm
Marines who paid a dreadful fee
For blood-soaked grains of sand.
Whose epitaph was well begun
“The situation is ... in hand !”
To thus eclipse the rising sun.
The sailors who won deathless fame.
Atlantic, Arctic, Solomons.
and helped enscroll each famous name
Like Nimitz, Halsey, and the ones
Who rest in countless ocean graves
far from the soil that gave them birth.
Their Requiem the ceaseless waves
that buffet all the shores of Earth.
The airmen, masters of the blue.
Doolittle, Spaatz - - and Richard Bong,
whose wings reshaped the World anew
with deeds for legend and for song.
The doughfoot slogging through the mud
of France and Luzon, mile on mile,
giving his tears and sweat and blood.
Chronicled by a man named Pyle. . .
Old Glory flies O’er Iwo’s Peak
and floats above each ocean deep.
Eternal Peace. The Nations seek:
Americans ‘Neath Crosses Sleep !’
Bob Wright
September 19, 1945
[Names of Vermilion County's fallen heroes of World War II follow on several panels]:
[Outer - Left Panel]:
- - Column One - -
Homer H. Abbott • David R. Allen • Donald H. Anderson • Robert W. Anderson • Samuel W. Anderson • Herman F. Antonini • Anthone Ark • Jack W. Ashbo • Earl W. Ashcraft • Justin C. Attutis • Frank Baer • Floyd D. Bailey • *Kenneth D. Bailey • Charles Barker, Jr. • Lewis E. Barrick • Paul E. Bartley • William C. Baumgart • Lowell R. Bennett • Peter Bessarab • Mario L. Biava • Arthur W. Birchfield • Clyde J. Blair • Jerome G. Bohland • Billy J. Bradfield • W. Lyman Brandenburg • Wilbur L. Brewer • Russell A. Brown • Glen L. Burner • Alvin G. Burr • William H. Bush • Raymond Butler • Dewey F. Butterworth • William H. Byram • Howard E. Callaway • Frank L. Calvert • Glen Carder • Eugene C. Carlson • Donald Carpenter • Ralph R. Carpenter • Billie E. Carrigan • Charles V. Carter • Harold R. Casner • Leo C. Cebulski • Charles E. Chandler • Walter R. Chandler
*Medal of Honor (Posthumous)
- - Column Two - -
Robert B. Chapman • Donald J. Cheffer • William E. Cherry • Wilbur K. Chester • Glen D. Chew • Cecil R. Childs • James V. Chittick • George E. Cisco • Joseph E. Clark • William T. Clearwater • John B. Clodfelder • William O. Coe • Orville A. Colby • Francis X. Collignon • Clifford J. Collins • William E. Colvin • George R. Connor • Rufus G. Cook • Stephen W. Cope • Jack T. Corley • Donald G. Cornell • Robert L. Cory • George P. Cosgrove • Ralph W. Cox • Raymond N. Cox • Wilbur G. Cox • R. D. Crawford • Harry Cronkhite • William R. Crooks • George E. Crowder • Harold E. Crowder • Charles N. Cummins • Ben Davis • Paul G. Davis • Owen L. Day • Robert L. Day • Achille Delanois • Harold F. Delanois • Archie Delay, Jr. • Eugene W. Demlow • Jack V. Dengler • Clay Devins • Virgil E. Devoss • Frank H. Dickson • Everett Dietrich
[Inner - Left Panel]:
- - Column One - -
Richard E. Doggett • William J. Dolan • Clarence E. Donaldson • William F. Donnell • Rezin J. Dougherty • Richard D. Dowiatt • Richard I. Downey • Burton Downing • Charles M. Downs • John I. Driver • William J. Dukes • George I. Dyar • Dean P. Edgington • John T. Edwards, Jr. • Walter O. Edwards • William P. Edwards • Robert R. Egnew • Wilbert R. Elder • Clarence J. Elliott • Jack D. Elliott • Eldon E. Emory • John M. Endzelis • Wendell A. Erskine • Ernest M. Falls • Theodore V. Filicsky • Carl W. Fliermans • Herman J. Foehrer • Lowell H. Ford • Donald W. Forein • John H. Foulk • George Fowler • Kenneth D. Franklin • Harry C. Fredericks, Jr. • E. O. Friese • George H. Gardner, Jr. • James Geades • Billy J. Gerkin • Thomas Gibson • Eugene E. Gilbreath • Ferris R. Gillen • Charles M. Glaze • Emil C. Golubic • Roger A. Gooch • Donald V. Gooden • Lewis Gray
- - Column Two - -
Ralph E. Gray • William Gray • Russell M. Green • Raymond R. Greene • James L. Griffin • Manfred C. Grimes • Robert D. Griner • Joseph E. Gritton • Mack J. Groner • Lewis E. Grubb, Jr. • Alfred B. Guadagna • Harry C. Guiltner • Gene A. Guthrie • Russell Guthrie • Raymond R. Haas • Wesley C. Hall • William A. Hardesty • Max C. Harry • Roy Hayes • Newton J. Heaton • Everett L. Henderson • John E. Hendrick • Amasa J. Hendricks • Carl C. Hendricks • W. C. Hendrickson • Harvey J. Henry • Robert W. Hess • Ronald W. Hiatt • Marion O. Hickman • Raymond C. Hill • Thurman G. Hill • Clyde D. Hillery • John G. Holstine • Victor E. Howard • Ernest B. Howell • Ernest Hubner • George M. Huckstadt • Kenneth D. Huffman • Robert S. Huffman • Homer G. Hughes • Wilbur Hughes • Robert D. Hunt • Marion Hurst • Gene Huskinsson • Samuel Huskinsson
[Inner - Right Panel]:
- - Column One - -
Gerald D. Ingle • Leslie Irvin • Robert L. Jinkins • Franklyn R. Johnson, Jr. • Harry M. Johnson • Horace A. Johnson • Howard V. Johnson • Robert Johnson • Woodrow C. Johnson • Roger E. M. Jones • Robert K. Jones • Edward J. Jonikas • George R. Jordan • Charles Kaneen • Kenneth L. Keller • Henry P. Kerkes • Robert E. Kerns • Maxie E. Kessler • Henry W. Ketzle • Joseph R. Kietzman • Carl H. Kilbury • John V. Klacik • Ralph G. Knight • Joseph Kotcher • Eugene E. Kuehner • Harold L. Lackey • Pete Laitas • Charles A. Lane • Thomas E. Lane, Jr. • Norman H. Larrance • Leroy S. Law • Robert Lawrence • Henry E. Lee • Norwood Lee • Reed A. Lewis • Robert G. Liggett • Donald R. Lucas • Robert E. Lucas • Roy J. Macklin, Jr. • Fred Malo • Howard D. Marshall • Daniel L. Martin • George K. Martin • Ralph A. Martin • Ralph I. Martin
- - Column Two - -
Jerome Mattingly • Donald E. Mattocks • Wayne V. Mauck • Alexander Mazeikas • Leo W. McCoy • Norman R. McDaniel • Donald O. McKee • Richard W. McLain • Harry N. McLaughlin • Ernest L. McNeese • Kenneth W. McVicker • Frank L. Mead • Herbert Menestrina • Daniel H. Metcalf • Leon H. Miller • Julian G. Mitchell • Ernest W. Moore • Mitchell Moore • Ambrose D. Morgan • Herman M. Morris • Paul Morris • Russel Moser • Ralph Mount, Jr. • Herschel Mullins • Frederick E. Murray • Charles E. Nix • Wayne M. Noblitt • William P. Nolan • John Nowling • William H. Offutt • Lambert L. Olson • Perry Lee Olson • Harold R. Oyler, Jr. • Robert L. Palmer • George H. Parrish • Horace Payne • Robert F. Phillips • Eugene Pickett • John H. Pitcock • Amos H. Poland • Harold H. Poland • Charles E. Ponder • Robert C. Potter • Louis Poullos • Robert B. Powell
[Outer - Right Panel]:
- - Column One - -
William V. Powell • Robert W. Pribble • Harry D. Proffitt • James L. Pruitt • Fred A. Pugh • Charles W. Quigle • Otis E. Randall • David F. Reagan • Ralph P. Regan • Lawrence E. Reitz • John Revello • Albert C. Reynolds • Francis J. Reynolds • Daniel J. Ribbe • Anthony P. Ringus • Ralph Ritter • Todd Roberts • Carl N. Rogers • Paul W. Rogers • Frank Rojas • Robert J. Rothwell • Charles F. Russell • Frank E. Sallee • Carl V. Schermerhorn • David L. Scott • Harold R. Scott • Ralph J. Seianas • William D. Sells • Charles C. Shaffer • Deloss H. Shambis • Scott J. Shank • Glen D. Sharp • Robert Shea • William Shelato • Harvey M. Shields • William Silverman, Jr. • Orville B. Singleton • Richard M. Small • Harry L. Smith • Milton H. Smith • Freddie T. Snodgrass • Phil Snyder • Robert F. Songer • Russell F. Sprouls • Robert Stamey
- - Column Two - -
Robert G. Stamos • George E. Stark • Harlan F. Steele • Archie L. Stice, Jr. • Curtis L. Stine • William Strainis • William H. Swisher • Richard C. Syers • Alfred B. Talbott • Thomas G. Tate • Max A. Tevebaugh • Eugene F. Tillotson • James O. Thomas • Ralph L. Thomas • Jarrel F. Tuttle • Homer E. Utterback • Charles J. Valesky • Marvin W. Van Dorn • Harry E. Van Tuyle, Jr. • Jack B. Vanzandt • Berah T. Vibbeart • Billy C. Virgin • Curtis N. W. Vogt • Charles S. Voyles • William J. Walter • Robert A. Ward • Wilbert C. Waterstredt • William R. Watters • Frank E. Waymire • Preston Weathers • George D. Weaver • Thomas Wiant • Charles E. Williams • Charles E. Williams, Jr. • George Williamson, Jr. • Forrest L. Wimsett • Alfred Wise • Ethan A. Wise • Raymond C. Withers • Lamoine D. Yager • Edward J. Yarusinsky • John C. Youhas • John W. Zander • William E. Zimmerman • Robert Zorns
Dedicated December 7, 1991
(50th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Bombing)
Marker is on North Hazel Street south of Cherry Street, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
