Transcript

Location: Veterans Freedom Park; Clinton Street, La Crosse, WI

My name is Mike Martino, and I’m the artist who assisted in designing and doing some drawings for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in La Crosse at the Veterans Park. A young man named Jordan had the idea of doing a Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and it would be in Veterans Park which is just off of Clinton Street. And I think he approached the Parks Department, and they told him to see me. So when he came I just felt like I needed to encourage him. I drew up what his idea was, and I worked with him to develop it. We incorporated some figures into the original design, and eventually if the money was raised, I would do those figures, but as it turns out that didn’t happen. What we did end up with was a half circle of granite stones with engraved names of all the Vietnam veterans that had lost their lives, and in the middle of that circle, there is a large granite plinth that, on one side, has the map of Vietnam etched into it and then the words the La Crosse Vietnam Veterans Memorial. And then on the backside of that I did drawings for the granite company to etch into the backside, and they’re various images of the Vietnam War. They had the dedication. It was a beautiful day. Jordan was there and his grandmother. His grandmother was very much a part of the fundraising and helping him to do this. And like I said, he was 15 when he started it, but it took years to get this far with it. And so it was a pretty big day. The color guard was there. The mayor was there. Jordan gave a nice speech. He had his suit on. He looked really good. And a lot of the veterans were there. A lot of folks showed up.