25 June 2016 - Soldiers Monument, Somewhere In Colorado Mountains

    While I was staying at North Clear Creek Campground, I read a magazine article about a monument to all the soldiers who had fought and died in Viet Nam from about 1945 until 1975.  The monument was conceived by a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Vietnam veteran, and he spent 20 years planning, designing, fundraising, and finally, erecting the memorial.  He wanted to pay tribute to the U.S. Forces, the French Legionnaires, the U.S allies in Southeast Asia, and private citizens who helped the Americans.

   He searched for a location that would be safe from vandals, yet accessible to those who wanted to visit and honor those who had fallen.  He selected a remote location in Colorado high up on the Continental Divide, in the Rio Grande National Forest.

   Fortunately, I was already *in* the Rio Grande National Forest, so I dug out my Delorme Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer and started searching, following the few hints that were provided in the article.  Finally, I thought I had it!

   I relocated to a closer campground, then set out about noon on a cloudy, overcast day, traveling just a few miles, turned off onto 6 miles of dirt road, then onto 10 miles of the roughest Forest Service dirt and (big) stone road I’ve ever traveled, but finally, a full hour after turning off the highway, I arrived at the summit, at 11,475 feet altitude, parked, and peering about, I spied the monument about 1/4 mile away.

   The monument consists of a central granite column about 12 feet tall with engravings on all four sides, surrounded by a low triangular rock wall suggestive of a remote outpost in Viet Nam.  Then outside this wall lie 36 300-pound granite stones in 3 concentric circles, representing soldiers defending the base, and each stone contains quotes in languages of the allies: Vietnamese, French, Laotian, Cambodian and others.

   The monument was completed in 1995, and visitors have left personal mementoes, coins, ammunition, even an occasional beer for their buddies.  It is an intensely and powerfully moving memorial.

         Dying, so that honor at least may be saved.

         (Stone serves as a memorial to the French who fell at the siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954)  

         We come from the Sultan.

         May God have mercy on our souls.

         (Taken from a marching chant of the Moroccan Tirailleurs to honor Arab North African soldiers          who fought with the French Union forces in Indochina.)

  

  

Model of a 155 mm Howitzer

Beer and a flag for a fallen buddy

 A bronzed 40mm mortar has been set atop the memorial  

Tribute to a fallen buddy

     So powerful was the effect on me that as I left, I was compelled to turn about, come to attention, render a salute, then turn back around and stumble back to my truck, vision blurred by tears.