Don Nelson's speech for dedication on Veterans Day, November 11, 2024
Good morning to all.
The Cherry County Veterans Memorial Committee held our first meeting on August 18,
2016 at 0800 hours. Those at that meeting were Donald Nelsen, Dick Jeffers, Jim
Edwards, Bob Stetter, Bill Marshall, John Ravenscroft, and Larry Johnson. The
committee has stayed the same except for the death of Larry Johnson. The
committee’s objective that day was to:
1- Have a monument or monuments constructed for all who have served our country in
the military since the end of World War II up until the end of the Vietnam War.
2- Start compiling ideas, drawings, pictures, etc. for monuments.
3-Select a site within the county which was pleasing and accessible to all.
4-Solicit companies to construct monuments
5-Solicit money for construction and installation.
The dates for the veterans are as follows:
Korean War Veterans
January 1, 1947 thru January 27, 1961
Vietnam War Veterans
January 28, 1961 thru May 7, 1975
The number of names on the memorials are currently:
Korean War 488 and Vietnam War 569
The amount of money spent to date is $176,680.00
Remarks
Jim Edwards
Dick Jeffers
Bob Stetter
Bill Marshall prefers not to speak. He is a Vietnam Veteran who was awarded two
purple hearts from combat in Vietnam.
A few years ago, while attending a school program here at memorial park, many of the
children were asking questions. We were fielding answers. Bill was his quiet self.
I asked him why he didn't say more. His answer was and is: “It still hurts”! All
of us veterans and veteran’s families know exactly what that means, and we back off
quietly.
Bill has spent countless hours taking local Veterans to their appointments at VA
Medical centers in Hot Springs, Fort Meade, Grand Island, Minneapolis and many other
places. We are so proud to have Bill Marshall as one of our committee members.
Larry Johnson is another of our committee members. He was from around the Cody area.
He was an Army Veteran who served our country during Vietnam. He was also a
tireless worker for Cody Legion Post 319.
Larry was a surveyor who ended up working for the United States Geological Survey
and traveled all over the country surveying for the feds. He started out helping
survey the direction that the Merritt Dam Canal would take down towards Ainsworth in
the early 1960"s.
During some of our travels together to various meetings we discussed some of his
surveying. One that came up was Nevada and included in that was Area 51 where we
all know they have the aliens hidden. Whenever we tried to ask about Larry about
Area 51 Larry always said: “I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING. NOTHING HAPPENED THERE.” He was
steadfast to the end. Larry is now deceased and we lost a great member and great
friend!
John Ravenscroft
We are so grateful to the community and many caring individuals for their support of
these projects.
At a later date a list all who donated their time, talent, monies, or work will be
offered publicly.
It is just so rewarding to live in a community where we have received so much help
and continued support throughout the years.
We ran into the world wide Covid pandemic, Covid of the Marble, Spider cracks on
marble which had been shipped over, spider cracks on the World War II memorial which
was moved, and also dealt with no freight being shipped at all for a long time.
It took eight years but we endured, we persevered, and that leads us to this moment.
At this time, together with the committee assembled:
Please join me gentlemen:
We Dedicate the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial to the
Citizens and families of Cherry County.!!!
