Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Collection

Background on Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans' Memorial

In 1989, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Trust was established by a group of veterans and "other concerned individuals" in Worcester, Mass., with the goal of erecting a memorial to commemorate "the sons and daughters of Massachusetts who lost their lives in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War." Picking up on the earlier, unsuccessful efforts of the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in Boston, the Trust identified Worcester's Green Hill Park as site for the memorial and after holding a design competition, they engaged the architectural firm of Harby, Rogers, and Catanzaro to draft conceptual plans.

Despite receiving proclamations of support from the governor and legislature, however, fundraising for the memorial stalled progress until 1998, when the newly-established Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee (MVVMC) stepped in to assist. Marshalling the support of the state's Commissioner of Veterans' Services Thomas Kelley, state Senators Robert Bernstein and Matthew Amorello, and state Representative William Glodis, the Committee secured $1.4 million from the Legislature to allow work to go forward. Under the supervision of Parks Commissioner Michael V. O'Brien, the memorial was completed and delivered for dedication on June 9, 2002.

A four-acre site located on Skyline Drive at Green Hill Park in Worcester, the memorial pays tribute to the state's 1,536 men and one woman who died during the war and the 235,000 veterans who survived. Designed by the edge of a pond, the memorial is organized in three sections: the Place of Flags, Place of Words (reproducing text from letters written home by service members who died in Vietnam), and Place of Names (where the names of every Massachusetts resident who died in combat or as a result of wounds received is carved in stone). On Sept. 8, 2011, a granite memorial was added to the site to honor the service and sacrifice of over 4,000 war dogs, mostly German shepherds, who served in the conflict.