A Vietnam War memorial was unveiled Monday at Belding Veterans Park in honor of Memorial Day.
The monument has 2,654 names engraved on it representing each Michigan veteran that was killed while fighting overseas during the war.
The face of Kathy Fries-Wilson’s brother, Dan, is etched into one of the 12 pillars, which represents the local men killed, that lines the pathway leading up to the wall.
“He was killed in South Vietnam,” said Fries-Wilson. “In what I have come to understand to be a very, very fierce battle.”
Denny Craycraft, the organizer of the event, said they have raised funds to erect five pillars representing the Belding veterans who were lost and two of the Greenville men. They are still looking for companies to sponsor the other five Greenville men who were killed in Vietnam.
“So that they'll never be forgotten,” Craycraft said.
A Vietnam veteran himself, Craycraft says it has become his mission to honor and thank all those who have served and will continue to serve the country.
“I thought this was going to be kind of a closure thing for me,” he said. “There's no closure. It's just showing respect that we didn't get when we came home.”
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