Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
ENLARGE
Honor Guard members and a crowd of veterans and citizens watch retired Brig. Gen. Harry Hagaman speak at Tuesday’s Veterans' Day ceremony at the Western Slope Vietnam War Memorial Park in Fruita.
FRUITA, Colo. — On Veterans Day Tuesday, founder Jim Doody welcomed veterans to the Western Slope Vietnam War Memorial Park in Fruita with the strains of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” and the air-whipping sound of a Huey helicopter.
The helicopter and the song both came from an era many in the crowd remember as a time they or their friends went to war, Doody said. With help from donations, Doody hired Spectrum Sound to install a permanent sound system in the park, which consists of plaques with veterans’ names, flag poles, a statue and a platform holding up a Huey. When visitors step on the platform below the helicopter, motion sensors will now activate and share the song, the sound and the story behind the park.
“We got together as a board and discussed putting in a PA (public address) system,” Doody said. But he wasn’t sure the $8,500 price tag would allow for the wish to come true. Then Harold Elam, owner of Elam Construction in Grand Junction, heard about the sound system and handed Doody a check for $5,000.
Elam said he was just being patriotic.
“We are firm believers in our freedoms and in the veterans that secured these freedoms,” he said.
Ret. Brig. Gen. Harry Hagaman and the Rev. John Foreman also spoke at Tuesday’s Veterans Day celebration at the park. Hagaman saluted the more than 100 veterans gathered and told Republicans in the crowd not to pout too long over presidential candidate John McCain’s defeat.
“Today in our current time period we’re all worried about our current election — not all of us, but some of us,” Hagaman said. “But I believe we’re a great country and we’ll snap back.”
Foreman spoke of the “Greatest Generation’s” onward march toward freedom and the historic chords that bind all veterans before and since World War II.
“That can-do spirit leads us onward and reminds us that even the most difficult can be done,” Foreman said.
The helicopter and the song both came from an era many in the crowd remember as a time they or their friends went to war, Doody said. With help from donations, Doody hired Spectrum Sound to install a permanent sound system in the park, which consists of plaques with veterans’ names, flag poles, a statue and a platform holding up a Huey. When visitors step on the platform below the helicopter, motion sensors will now activate and share the song, the sound and the story behind the park.
“We got together as a board and discussed putting in a PA (public address) system,” Doody said. But he wasn’t sure the $8,500 price tag would allow for the wish to come true. Then Harold Elam, owner of Elam Construction in Grand Junction, heard about the sound system and handed Doody a check for $5,000.
Elam said he was just being patriotic.
“We are firm believers in our freedoms and in the veterans that secured these freedoms,” he said.
Ret. Brig. Gen. Harry Hagaman and the Rev. John Foreman also spoke at Tuesday’s Veterans Day celebration at the park. Hagaman saluted the more than 100 veterans gathered and told Republicans in the crowd not to pout too long over presidential candidate John McCain’s defeat.
“Today in our current time period we’re all worried about our current election — not all of us, but some of us,” Hagaman said. “But I believe we’re a great country and we’ll snap back.”
Foreman spoke of the “Greatest Generation’s” onward march toward freedom and the historic chords that bind all veterans before and since World War II.
“That can-do spirit leads us onward and reminds us that even the most difficult can be done,” Foreman said.
