Veterans Memorial Park

This memorial was dedicated on August 9th, 1987. Funded entirely by contributions from the people of the valley, the memorial exists as a tangible repository for healing for all those touched by war.

The body of the memorial is of Colorado Yule Marble, from the quarry in Marble, CO that supplied the same stone for the Tomb of the “Unknown Soldier”, and the columns of the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capitol. The veined red spheres are from the travertine marble quarry in Canon City, Colorado. The memorial was designed by Aspen architect Wayne Stryker, and was sculpted by artist and Navy Vietnam veteran Greg Tonozzi of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

The inscription on the bronze plaque is quoted from Confederate General Robert E. Lee in a letter written to his wife during the Civil War. Lee’s words were chosen because the sentiments they so poignantly express are true of war in all times.

The inscription on the west side of the memorial is attributed to Union General Ulysses Grant upon the signing of the Confederate surrender in 1865: “Let us have peace.”

The “Days of Rage” are over, just as the Battles of Khe Sanh and the jungles of Vietnam have long since faded into a dusty, bloody haze.

But the huge rents torn in the national psyche, both by the war in Vietnam and the war in the streets of Hometown USA, those are still with us.

Jagged, red around the edges and a nasty emptiness in the center, these black holes suck at our composite soul with a power we have yet to fully understand.

To remember in full what it was like, what our experience meant to us then, what it taught us, what it means now. More than 50,000 died (in the Vietnam War), and hundreds of thousands more died just a little bit, in a land where we did not belong.

The Roaring Fork Valley Veterans Memorial is a memorial not only to those who went to Vietnam, but to all who have been touched by war, to all of us.

We strive to remember.”

In 1868, Chief of Staff General John A. Logan proclaimed General Order No. 11, calling for the first observance of Memorial Day, originally called “Decoration Day.”

He inaugurated “this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades,” and expressed the desire to cherish “tenderly the memory of our heroic deed, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foe.”

Ever mindful of the burden of suffering of our human family wrought by all war, may we better remember daily to love and seek the grace of peace.

As a community we wish to reach out to teach our youth the importance of Memorial Day; that we will honor those who served, those who lost their lives, those families, friends and loved ones left behind.

Memorial Day was passed by Congress in 1968, on the centenary of its founding.”