Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial

Just 75 miles or so south of St. Louis and right off of Interstate 55 South, sits the small community of Perryville, Missouri. With a population of only about 8500, you wouldn’t expect to see a replica of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall that’s located in Washington D.C., but, unbelievably, the wall in Perryville is an exact replica of the incredible black granite wall in our nations’ capital.

The big difference is you don’t have to fight the maddening crowds in D.C all jockeying for position on the nation’s capitol mall trying to get in as many sights as they can in a day. If you’ve never been to D.C, by all means it is something to have on your bucket list, if only to see our national monuments like the Wall, the Washington monument, the Lincoln memorial and many, many more.

So, if you can’t get to D.C., in tiny little Perryville, you can at least enjoy the splendor of the Vietnam Wall and be humbled by the experience.

Dixie and I have been to D.C a few times and we have always taken in as many of the national monuments and memorials as we could. We recently traveled down I55 on our way to Tennessee during the Memorial Day weekend and when I saw the Perryville exit, it reminded me of a featured article we had seen on one of the local St. Louis TV channels a few months ago.

As soon as I mentioned it, Dixie immediately remembered the article too, so since we really weren’t in any hurry, and after nearly driving past the exit we were able to get off the interstate and travel just a few miles through Perryville to the memorial. It really was only about a five minute drive from the interstate.

We learned so much on our short visit to this Wall.  The property the Wall is located on was donated by, Mr. Jim Eddleman, a Vietnam Veteran, who in 1968 made a promise to himself while serving our nation in Vietnam that he would one day honor his comrades in arms if he made it out alive.  Mr. Eddleman kept that promise by donating several acres of farmland and a substantial amount of funds in 2017 to make his tribute to his comrades a reality.

Consisting of two connecting black granite walls, the east wall begins at the apex of the war in 1959 and includes the names of casualties and those missing in action from June 8, 1956 – May 25, 1968.  The west wall connects and continues from where the east wall stopped listing the casualties and MIAs until the end of the war on May, 5, 1975.

Here’s a few interesting facts about the heroes listed on the wall.

1) There are 160 Medal of Honor Recipients on the Wall

2) Eight women, all nurses, are on the Wall

3) There are 40 sets of brothers and 3 sets of fathers and sons on the Wall

4)  The youngest service member on the Wall was 15 year old Dan Bullock and the oldest was 62 year old, Kenna Taylor

5)  Sixteen chaplains died in service to our country during the Vietnam conflict

6)  There are still over 1500 service members still missing in action.

I included a photo of one of the handouts provided by the memorial that has many other details about the names of heroes on the Wall.

So if you’re ever traveling down I55 south of St. Louis, I highly encourage this small detour to visit the Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial in tiny Perryville, Missouri.  I promise you will not be disappointed and know you will have a profound, inspiring and humbling experience.

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Thanks for reading and Happy 244th birthday to ours, the greatest nation to ever exist.

Respectfully,

Paul

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