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The Friday before Veterans Day 2001 was selected for the rededication of the reconstructed Vietnam Veterans Plaza.
Two thousand veterans and their families, including 600 relatives of New York City's 1,741 sons and daughters who lost their lives in Vietnam, were on hand for the event. They listened in rapt attention to speakers who praised those who answered their country's call, who reminded them of the need to remember what happened in the jungles and the rice paddies of Southeast Asia during the long years of the Vietnam War, and who drew parallels with those emergency responders who died during the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
They heard Henry Stern, commissioner of New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, praise the contemplative nature of the reborn plaza. He also acknowledged the unique public-private partnership responsible for the dramatic improvements to the plaza and memorial. The principals in this partnership included the City of New York, which appropriated almost $2.7 million toward the $7.2 million cost of the renovation; the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the landlord of 55 Water Street which abuts the plaza and has responsibility for its maintenance, which gave more than $3 million; the Manhattan Chapter 126 of the Vietnam Veterans of America which initiated the project and various veterans organizations, corporations, and other groups whose support was crucial in galvanizing the effort to rehabilitate the plaza.
They were inspired by the remarks of two Medal of Honor recipients, Thomas Kelley, who retired as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and who now heads the State of Massachusetts Department of Veterans Affairs; and Bronx-born Paul W. Bucha, who had been a captain in the 101st Airborne Division and former longtime president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Bucha focused his remarks on the nature of service, deftly connecting the sacrifice of those who fought in Vietnam with that of those emergency responders, many of whom were veterans, who helped evacuate more than 25,000 people from the Twin Towers on September 11th. Some 400 firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians perished while coming to the aid of their fellow citizens.
Also addressing those gathered were Vietnam veteran Dick Grasso, chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange; Anthony J. Principi, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who served in the “brown water Navy” in Vietnam; Thanh Bui, a Vietnamese woman who expressed gratitude to America and the Americans who fought in her native land; and Gold Star Mother Virginia Dabonka, whose son, John, died in Vietnam. Excerpts of two of his letters are inscribed on the memorial.
The highlight of the totally rebuilt plaza, which features new paving blocks, plantings, and lighting; ceremonial entrances on both Water and South streets; a pulsating water element of polished granite; and six new flagpoles, is the 125-foot long, 10-foot “Walk of Honor.” The names of 1,741 New York City residents lost to the war, from Rosario R. Abbate to Andrew G. Zissu, are etched onto stainless steel plaques, or steles, affixed to a dozen granite pylons. A map of Southeast Asia, also fabricated in stainless steel, greets visitors at the beginning of the Walk. It sets the scene and offers the names of places in which American troops fought and died in Southeast Asia.
Vince McGowan was the Master of Ceremonies for the event and the high point of the morning’s ceremony was the unveiling of the names of those who died. With cameras clicking, relatives of the deceased, assisted by Medal of Honor recipients Bucha and Kelley, pulled off the blue bunting covering the plaques on which are inscribed the names of their loved ones, their sons, brothers, fathers, uncles. A featured facet of the plaques is the listing of the ages of those who died. These range from 15 (Dan Bullock, a Marine private first class who lied about his age in order to enlist) to 57 (Everard A. Davis, an Army sergeant first class).
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