New England Foray

You may want to pay attention here because I will be making several posts over the next few days as I work to catch up-- remember you can see past posts and their titles in the archive list on the right side of the blog.

 

As I left Hershey, PA, I would make a long circular journey into New England and I would be off the interstates quite a bit.  I began a lovely back country drive across New York towards Saratoga, and the first small town I came upon provided a nice surprise...the small road took a 90 degree turn through town and as I turned my head - bingo!  There sat a tank!  and thus a memorial.  I whipped the car around and took a few pictures.  This day would provide a number of small town memorials that I just found along the route. 

 My ride was quite lovely and peaceful with little traffic. The town of Wayne offered up the next local memorial.

The road wound along a national forest and a beautiful lake and provided a great sense of tranquility and meaning to my trip.   

My major destination on this day was the Saratoga Monument north of the Saratoga National Historic Park and Battlefield.  The monument is where the defeated British army and its civilian stragglers under General John Burgoyne fled through the woods and then actually surrendered and changed the course of the Revolution in the fall of 1777.  The monument sits in a small village next to a private cemetery.  During operating hours one can go inside and there is a gift shop, but I arrived later in the day.  The monument is not often visited and often overlooked but really marks the key spot of the events of Saratoga, and Victory Woods are an eerily preserved section of the deep woods that fleeing British troops ran through in an attempt to escape.     

 From Saratoga I drove on a lovely back road through small New England towns as I crossed into Vermont.  The late afternoon/evening was beautiful and many people were out on their porches amid the huge masses of blooming flowers.  Many of the small towns/villages had memorials and I realized I could not stop at all of them as I headed to Bennington.  I reluctantly drove on east until I finally just had to stop.  In Greenwich I came upon a simply beautiful little memorial located in the "v" formed by two streets.  Quickly I pulled into the parking lot of the orthodontist next to the memorial.  As I approached the memorial I realized it was of different eras with an older circular memorial and newer marble monuments. 

I also quickly realized my karma for these memorials was flying high because the first small plaque I walked up to in the circle of flowers with my camera ready, listed the name of a local young man who had died in service during World War I....and he had died in Texas.  All of the other men had perished in France except this one, the one I had chosen to walk directly to for my first picture.

The memorial honored those who had falled from Greenwich and Easton from World War I to Vietnam. 

Throughout my trip I have travelled many miles of Veteran's Memorial Highways/Biways and Bridges.  Some are in honor of all veterans and some, especially in West Virginia, are named for specific veterans, often Medal of Honor recipients.  Unfortunately, I do not always have my camera ready to snap a picture but believe me I notice the signs. 

My final memorial of the day was the large obelisk/tower located at Bennington, Vermont where in 1777 volunteers from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachussetts had stopped an attempt by a British force sent by General Burgoyne from seizing much needed supplies.  The Americans fought off the British attack on this beautiful high ground.  The obelisk is quite impressive and can be seen for miles and the small gift shop sits right where the original colonial storehouse was located.    

What a gorgeous view!

And finally the monument site and the downtown region of Bennington are partially inhabited by these great painted artsy mooses!  They remind me of the painted steers found around Fort Worth!

I drove on to Brattleboro, Vermont to spend the night and again what a great drive with my moonroof open!  The next morning I headed first into New Hampshire.  In Manchester the main cemetery houses a section dedicated to the Franco-Americans from Manchester who have fought in America's wars. 

In downtown Manchester is a small veterans park that contains a large tower with statuary commemorating those New Hampshirites who fought and died in World War I.  The female statue is really quite unusual with her face hidden within the hooded cloak but her sadness permeates the site. 

 The park also contains a memorial tribute to Rene Gagnon one of the Marines who helped in the famous flag raising captured on film at Iwo Jima.     Manchester is a diverse city and also has a large Jewish population and several synagogues.  At the oldest one in town is a small but poignant memorial to the victims of the Holocaust with an image of the family seemingly rising from the flames. 

After days of driving north, I now headed south to Connecticut.  New Hampshire was the northern peak of my travels on this journey.  Connecticut would offer an array of various types of memorials but especially to submarines.  As I approached Hartford, my eye caught the brown signs of an historical site that indicated an Iwo Jima Memorial was located nearby, so off I went on another adventure.  The signs led me to a really impressive memorial to the veterans of Connecticut who saw action at the battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.  The site is just off of the interstate in a small clearing which is not impressive but the display is stirring; it includes a miniature reproduction of the famous Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington DC that I had seen in April.  The list of Connecticut boys lost at Iwo Jima was surprisingly large, and the displays honoring chaplains and medics reminds one of all those who serve. 

In New Britain I climbed the hill in the large city park to view the very tall obelisk dedicated to the Connecticut veterans who served in World War I.  On this very warm day there were few out in the park but the view over the city was splendid.  Most states erected large memorials to remember their citizens who fought in the First World War and these memorials tend to be located on large hills or in the city center and are often composed of an obelisk. The Connecticut memorial is topped by a large eagle with its wings folded behind it, and the circle around the obelisk contains plaques with the names of the fallen.

I have always been enamored with submarines and U-boats and so Groton, CT called me to come see the Naval Submarine Base and the memorial to US submarines.  The first memorial is located under the Gold Star Bridge along the waterfront (and right next to an automative repair shop which is where one must park)and contains the conning tower of a submarine and the Wall of Honor commemorating all US submarines lost at sea. The Wall lists every name of every crew member who was lost.   

From here you drive down the small seaside road to the US Naval Submarine Warfare Base and the neighboring Submarine Warfare Museum.  This museum is dedicated to all US submariners and is where the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, is docked and can be toured.  I read the story of the Nautilus in grade school and was fascinated by its journey under the polar ice cap.  I was in heaven!

The beauty of the Groton/New London area along the coast energized me and I would need it as I still had quite a long way to go this day.  My next stop was Yale University in New Haven to see the memorial on campus to Yale students/graduates who had perished in combat.  The key road was under construction in the interior of the campus and so I had to pull over and feed a parking meter; luckily a small group of older adults was on the sidewalk and I asked for directions and they helpfuly obliged.  So I took off across campus; there were quite a few students on campus and I smiled to myself as they reminded me of the students in my classes.  The Yale memorial is located in the Yale Commons, the central point of campus and the main dining hall, so it was a beehive of activity.  The memorial consists of names etched onto the walls, plaques or one large granite monument; Yale graduates are commemorated from the war of 1812 through World War II. 

Sadly, along the main corrider that leads to the dining hall are listed all of the names from the Civil War, however, I had to lift up floor mats to find the inscription that identifies this memorial and students walked by with puzzled looks on their faces.  One or two slowed down and peered at the names as if seeing them for the very first time.  Interestingly there are plaques remembering Yale graduates who died as in the Boxer Rebellion and fighting in China in the 1930s.  (A few years back I had the chance to visit Harvard, and that campus contains a large memorial chapel that I believe to be more impressive and eye catching.)

I then spent some fruitless time driving around New Haven in rush hour traffic searching for two more memorials before finally discovery the last set on my list for this city.  Down along the water front along a non-descript street that contained many cars of road maintenance workers who were going home, were located a series of memorials.  These seemed almost an afterthought and no one was around.  The memorials commemorate Connecticut losses in the Vietnam War and the current Wars against Terrorism as well as an impressive V-shaped statue to honor and remind one of the POW/MIAs.    These all look out across the water peacefully.  I hoped that the people of New Haven know about these commemorations as they felt lonely, cold and forgotten.

My journey continued westward to Danbury located near the border with New York.  Within the city is Veterans Park and on this night it was filled with families attending little league and adult baseball games.  I managed to find some parking and walked to the large green area that contains the Danbury tribute to veterans of all wars; the grounds are quite beautiful and inviting and feature a rose garden.  There is even a raised seating area for special ceremonies and pillars that have the names of all those from Danbury who fought in each war.

Not far down the road in the same park and near Memorial Hall are located the stirring monuments to the Danbury veterans of Korea and Vietnam.

After a long day and drive, I had captured a number of beautiful memorials and spent some time driving aimlessly in New Haven, but I had seen much.  I now headed west into the setting sun; my destination was the iconic West Point and site of the US Military Academy.  I drove over Storm King mountain just a darkness fell.

Army War College to Chocolate!

Okay I know the headline is a little teaser and I will get to it shortly.  Now I also want to apologize for my lack of posts on this trip since that first one, but honestly I have just been TOO BUSY!  Literally most of my days have been on the go from early in the morning until after dark.  I've just not had the time or have been too tired at night to post anything.  So I will be posting several items over the next few days and eventually catch up even though I will already be home by then.  [Getting ready for my next trip.]

When last I left you, I was in Kentucky and had shown you some items from Frankfurt/Lexington.  After spending the night in far eastern Kentucky I headed north to Pennsylvania but via West Virginia.  Just so you get a feel for the length and breadth of this journey I will have traveled to 12 states (some more than once) and about 4000 miles!!  Okay I scooted over to Charleston, West Virginia to several memorials but most specifically the state veterans memorial on the capitol grounds and it really was worth the trip and is very attractive.  This very large memorial includes statues representing the military branches and a list of those from West Virginia who gave their lives in the wars of the 20th century.  For me, however what is particularly striking are two plaques that are included here.  One lists all of the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from the small state of West Virginia and the other plaque lists those killed in the small wars/actions of the last 30 or so years including the Beirut, Desert Storm, and Panama.  This second list is actually very unusual.  These actions which had small loss of life for the U.S. are often forgotten in remembrances around the nation and so again for such a small state to have so many names listed here surprised and touched me.  

I now headed north toward Pennsylvania but not on the interstate but the beautiful river road on the Ohio-West Virginia border!  The scenery was gorgeous and such a pleasant drive; this day would also include a number of bridges as does the whole trip.    My next major stop was Pittsburgh and I must say this is a difficult city to drive in as all the roads seem to go straight up or down major hills!  The roads twist and turn as much anything in San Francisco and the roads are very narrow.  In fact I thought my GPS was sending me down some alleys, but I did manage to find some great views.  I'd like to give a little perspective here about my journeys to memorials.  I have become adept at finding them in small towns - I can usually spot pretty quickly and in larger cities they tend to be located either on high ground areas that offer scenic overviews of the city, or in major city parks or on city hall/state capitol grounds.  They are also often home to those in our society who are without shelter, or in older parts of the city (not always the best neighborhoods).  So my travels have afforded me interesting city tours from the most beautiful to the most forgotten sections of cities.  Pittsburgh offers a great example of this dichotomy.  The Peabody Boys memorial was erected to honor those Pittsburgh boys from the Peabody School who served and lost their lives in WWI; this memorial is in bad shape, however, the school property is now part of a theological school in a fairly rough area of the city.  Many pass by this forlorn statue not realizing nor remembering these brave young men who gave so much for their country in a time of need.  It is these kinds of forgotten or unusual commemorations that I want to capture and help the world to see.   From here I drove onto the beautiful although cramped campus of Duquesne University.  After trying to navigate the small twisting streets (yes on major hills), I found a campus map posted and while searching for my destination, a kind campus cop stopped and provided me with clear directions -- just pull forward 50 feet and it was around the corner!  The lovely memorial is dedicated to those from Duquesne that have served in our nation's wars.  Hopefully the students as they go to class each day do take notice.  After finally escaping Pittsburgh, my goal was an unusual memorial in nearby Greensburg that is dedicated to a local unit, the 14th Quartermaster Detachment that suffered a large number of casualties when their barracks in Dharahan, Saudi Arabia was struck by a scud missile during Desert Storm; they suffered the largest number of casualties of any unit during Desert Storm.  The site is moving as it reminds one that while Desert Storm was short and seemed to be rather benign, for some it left a lasting impression.     

As I headed to south central Pennsylvania, I encountered one of the few difficult stretches of my trip as I became trapped on the Pennsylvania turnpike!  The traffic was horrible and their were NO exits; the flow stopped and started for no apparent reason -- no accidents nor construction and this went for about 75-80 miles!  Strangely enough I was listening to a podcast from the Pritzker Military Library with the author of a new book on US treatment of POWs throughout our history and I must tell you this reinforced my mindset that I was a prisoner of this stupid highway!  I finally made my escape and headed toward Gettysburg where I was able to visit the battlefield site in the evening before the sun set (and with many fewere people).  Again my good fortune that I was at Gettysburg just a day or two after the anniversary of this key Civil War battle.  The impending dusk enhanced the eeriness of the place; I have visited a number of battlefields but Gettysburg sits amid the town and so historical markers, commemorations and businesses all mingle together in many places.         On this hallowed ground stretch marker after marker commemorating the action or movement of many, many individual units.  The auto tour winds through miles of markers and signposts that provide the hour-by-hour ebb-and-flow of the battle and the cemetery reminds one of the lives those movements cost.

After a long day and good night's sleep, I began the next day with a trip to Carlisle Barracks and the Army War College and the Army Heritage Center - places that I have heard so much about both from former professors who taught here as well as the Carlisle connection to Native Americans.  The Heritage Center is located near the Carlisle Barracks Army base and provides a great collection of historical documents and information about the army and includes an exhibit to Omar Bradley.  There were also several unit memorials scattered on the Army Heritage Trail which runs alongside the Army War College golf course which is not open to the public, although I was able to take a few pictures .      While I was allowed to drive through the Carlisle Barracks site in order to see the Army War College, pictures were not allowed although I did snap a single shot of the parade ground statue. 

My next stop was the capitol city of Harrisonburg and what a beauty.  The memorials here are mainly located upon the scenic river front area that contains a large park and walking trails.  The surprise is a memorial commemorating all those lost on US submarines in World War II!  While it is along the river, I could not figure the connection between Harrisonburg and the subs; they were not built here nor do I remember there being a training base.  The memorial lists each submarine that was lost and the number of men in each submarine.       From Harrisonburg, I quickly drove over to the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.  This is not a very scenic cemetery like most of those I have visited, and I admit that I do not care for the cemeteries that use the flat headstone for easier upkeep and maintenance.  The beauty and solemnity is lost when you look out across a barren field and in this case because of dry conditions, brown grass and shrubs.  Nothing catches the eye or brings a catch to your breath like rows of headstones or crosses as they help one to actually get a feel for the lives they represent.  What is stunning at Indiantown Gap, however is the HUGE Veterans Memorial built here.  The architecture is very unique with a modernistic take on a bombed out house symbolic of destruction in World War II.    The site even contains a small amphitheatre for special events. 

My final stop for the day was HERSHEY!  Yes this chocoholic could not resist a night at the historic Hershey hotel with a round of golf on the historic course that abuts the Hershey plant.   The area was having a big heatwave and most of the northern golfers feared the heat (it was about 95).  This Texan felt right at home and so I played a round of afternoon golf after my morning work.  The course is gorgeous and challenging with many elevation changes.  The course workers were having some problems with the heat, however with 2 of the cart girls' carts breaking down and all the ice melting.  I must say it was no worse than a good round of golf in 100+ degree heat  in Texas -- just drink plenty of water!  I did pretty well by shooting and 80 too!    

     I then spent the night at the beautiful Hershey hotel where they drench you in chocolate (including a candy bar of your choice on check in) and chocolate spa treatments. I finished this long day with a room delivery of milk and cookies -- the most popular item.

    From Hershey, I head back to work and head north as well -- pretty far north and then to the US Military Academy at West Point!  So stay tuned.

On the Road Again!

I'm on the road again in search of memorials!  This trip heads northeast and I have an ambitious schedule but some great places I've never been and always wanted to see.  My first location to photograph in enroute was at the Rowher World War II Japanese internment camp in Arkansas.  This is a really remote site and I was moving down this small Arkansas state road when suddenly a small sign indicated I needed to turn down a dirt road that went across an old railroad track berm.  So off I went and drove on a short straight road between two large farm fields.  There was a small copse of trees and blooming crepe myrtles.  The memorial is located in what was the camp's cemetery and there are a  number of graves from the time period including tragically 3 infants.  From this camp were eventually drawn a large number of the men who served in the 442 Regimental Combat Team in WWII -- the most decorated individual unit.  Many of its members gave their lives for their country in an effort to help show Japanese-American patriotism while their families remained locked in the camp.  The internees and survivors erected several markers here to commemorate their service and while these original markers are deteriorating, a new one has been added.  The location is really quite beautiful and eerily quiet.  Unfortunately, few drive so far out of the way to see this touching tribute.

I then moved on into Tennessee and Nashville offered up some interesting sites.  Across from the impressive state capitol building is a veterans plaza and the victory statue for World War I really catches the eye.  The statue is really quite large and in a small plaza by itself and there are very large (10'x10') plaques with huge lists of names of those who gave their lives in WWI.  The veterans plaza also has large memorials to Korea and Vietnam and they too are quite impressive.   The capitol grounds also have a large statue of Sgt. Alvin York, the Tennesse native, who was the most decorated American soldier in World War I - quite impressive for a man who originally sought a conscientious objector status based upon his religious faith. 

I then (well after a little gofl) moved north into Kentucky and the capitol at Frankfort.  Wow -- the capitol is quite gorgeous and easily spotted with its impressive dome.  Out near the State Archives is an extremely toughing Kentucky State Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  When you approach, you can only see a few flags rising from the site and only by walking up to the elevated site you can see that it is a clever and stark sundial in white granite.  The entire memorial is flat and as you walk across it you can view date lines with names under each year and month of the war.  The sundial is mainly composed of a large silver art piece that falls upon etched quotes or proverbs.  The site had a lovely bouquet of flowers near the list of names of those missing in action.  From the site one can look over toward the capitol and feel as if the state is ever watching over those that were lost. 

I'll next post a few of the sites from West Virginina and Pennsylvania.  I will be heading toward a town just made for me...Hershey!  A little break from the work with a stop for golf and some chocolate.   I also have some great historic army sites in my sites -- Carlisle -- home of the Military Institute and Army War College and then  West Point!